The Princess Switch

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Stacy just broke up with her boyfriend so to cheer her up, her dedicated employee and sous-chef Kevin somehow snagged her an invitation to the royal bake-off in Belgravia. Don’t you wish your assistant arranged free European trips for you? Anyway, I’m not sure what qualified her to be in this contest, one of just 6 contestants from the whole world; even back home in Chicago she’s their “best-kept secret” which means most Chicagoans haven’t even heard of her.

Anyway, once they’re in “Belgravia” (with sets and “snow” that remind us an awful lot of the sets used for “Chicago” which in turn remind us of very cheaply sourced sets built shoddily in California), Stacy runs into the reclusive Duchess set to marry the Prince, hence the royal bake-off preceding the New Year’s Day wedding. The Duchess looks awfully familiar – like, an exact carbon copy of Stacy, only with a slightly shorter, flippier hairstyle. Hint hint: easily replicated. Yes! The Duchess has always wanted to explore what it’s like to be “normal” so they decide to switch places for the two days leading up to the competition. Parent Trap, anyone? Cue the princess makeover!

Is Vanessa Hudgens up for two such demanding roles? One might argue she isn’t  up for one. One might argue she isn’t up to the European accent. Or the Chicago one.

These Netflix Christmas movies are self perpetuating now; the couple sits down to Netflix (& chill?) in front of the very popular A Christmas Prince (so popular it’s getting a sequel at the end of the month, called A Royal Wedding, sure to bring almost exactly the same thing the first one did). Netflix’s holiday lineup is reassuringly formulaic. They always get together after a lengthy will they won’t they based on them practically hating each other but then witnessing one sweet act that not only negates all the disturbing red flags from before, but allows for them to fall in love at lightning speed. While A Christmas Prince is an anomaly, many of the couples end up married mere moments after determining that they do not, in fact, hate each other – twice now we’ve seen the new couple literally subsume someone else’s wedding when their relationship conveniently falls apart at the altar.

By no standards is this a good movie, but like a pair of old slippers, it’s comforting, familiar, and it delivers exactly what it promises. Only those with high tolerances for cheese and schmaltz should apply: a fatal overdose is entirely possible for those unused to the genre.

 

9 thoughts on “The Princess Switch”

  2. orcaflotta

    I have fortunately absolute zero “tolerance for cheese and schmaltz”, so this is one I won’t piratize, Pheeew, lucky Neflix. I can’t understand why anyone would make such movies, where a love story – and an exceptionally stupid one too – is the center of the story. Don’t people have any real stories to tell anymore?
    Hero does something outtandingly dramatic and brutal – gets the girl. Ok. Han shoots Greedo in cold blood (before 2004) – get’s Princess Leia. I buy it it. But boy gets girl because he isn’t that, like, totally bad after all? – Fuk you Hollywood!!!

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  5. bookbeachbunny

    I watched this one (who knows why?) and these movies make me so angry for some reason I really just need to change the channel, put down the remote and wait for your reviews 🙂 Otherwise I’m yelling at the television snow never looks that perfectly done! Why is this old guy meddling in your love lives? Oh well, sometimes its fun.

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  6. Willow Croft

    Uh, I’m not quite sure what just happened. I took your advice, and started watching these movies, not while wrapping, but just to have some background movie that I wasn’t really watching while I being preoccupied with about ten other things. Not sure why, since I have zero romantic sensibilities and would rather be run over by nine cookie-loving reindeer than watch a predictable schmaltzy romantic movie. But I couldn’t believe it when I actually kinda liked it, cheesy sets and dandruff snow and all. Even got a little misty-eyed over my glass of dark stout at times. And now I’m wondering if I wandered into an alternate dimension. So, dear Assholes, just thought I’d check in. Is the sky falling? Is Trump suddenly sane? Has the alien-led Rapture happened? LOL
    [Well, I mostly liked it, except for the part when her assistant (Which I’m not sure why she’s calling him her sous chef? Isn’t that for restaurants? Help me out here?) calls the hard-working, dedicated, responsible, efficient and organized baker who dares to have the audacity to want to show up early to prepare for a presumably high-profile baking competition “neurotic”. Then I wanted to go throw the double-standard sexist jerk under a team of reindeer myself.]

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