Wrong in almost every possibly way.
| Inventing the Christmas Prince is definitely on the children’s movie end of the Hallmark spectrum, but the comedy isn’t cute, more nonexistent, and the romance is inappropriate. This is very poorly written with uneven acting and messages that make no sense. Considering Hallmark’s other choices are better, this should be a last resort. | 2022 Directed by: Paul Ziller Screenplay by: Kim Beyer-Johnson Starring: Tamera Mowry-Housley, Ronnie Rowe | |
| Shelby (Tamera Mowry-Housley) is a single mom and a rocket scientist. She comes across as smart and competent but the writers have made up a smart profession that they know nothing about. She works at a private company that puts rockets in space, and since she has a terrible boss, she’s thinking of leaving for a different private company that also puts rockets in space in the same non-descript small town in middle America. That does not exist. Her boss, Evan (Ronnie Rowe), has zero social skills despite some moron promoting him into a managerial position. He’s supposed to make an effort to get to know his employees and be nice since the company can’t afford any more people leaving (like Shelby). So, Evan does nothing, he continues to be an asocial asshole. It’s not even like he’s trying but finds being social too hard, he’s just an awful person who isn’t going to bother trying. We have one good character in a nonsense world and one bad character, and we haven’t even gotten to the story yet. Shelby’s daughter thinks Evan is the Christmas Prince, a story that Shelby invented to tell her daughter a story of hope and magic and Christmas. Cute enough. Except Shelby doesn’t want to ruin the magic of Christmas so she convinces Evan to pretend to be the Christmas Prince in exchange for her not quitting the job. The romance is not only inappropriate it’s also with the wrong person. Shelby should be falling for her coworker who actually likes humans, is nice to her, and makes an effort to get to know her. Instead she falls for her boss, a man in position of power over her, who hates humans, and only reluctantly gets to know her after she tricks him. That should not be the definition of romance in any movie, especially not a children’s movie. Meanwhile, Shelby and Evan work together to try to grant Grace’s wishes from the Christmas Prince. It’s not clear what message the movie is going for (which is odd since Hallmark Christmas movies are never subtle about whatever heartwarming message they have) but at best it’s about teaching children to be materialistic. Almost everything about this movie is wrong, so for the children’s sake, put on a different Christmas movie. From this year’s Hallmark collection, I would recommend In Merry Measure. | ||
Want a different Christmas movie or just more holiday-themed movies? Holiday Movies