Christmas romantic comedies dont need to be plausible, or well-written, or good.
Its probably better if theyre none of the above.
By those metrics,A Christmas Princeis an instant classic.
Netflix
But what it lacks in aesthetics,A Christmas Princemore than makes up in delightful, inexplicable nonsense.
And then … the Michigan Avenue bridge over the Chicago River.
And this is thefinalestablishing shot, which pans up to the office building where Amber works.
Netflix
And its not just that I recognize the bridge because Im from Chicago.
Im from Highland Park Imbarelyfrom Chicago.
There are multiple Chicago flags incredibly visible, between flags for the state of Illinois.
Netflix
What is the magazine called?Now Beat?Beat Now?
Its like one of those visual-pun riddles they gave you in elementary school.
But everything about this magazine is terrible.
First of all, Amber is an editor.
We know this because she confronts a very rude writer who turned in 650 words instead of 300.
Just clean it up, the writer sniffs at her.
Amber mopes back to her friends.
She wants to be the one writing the stories, not just fixing them.
But see at most (all?)
publications, editors are a more senior position than writers.
Why do they treat it atNow/Beat/Nowlike its the worlds worst internship?
Im hardly killing it on the freelance writing market.
Girl, you are aneditorat aprintmagazine.
This is 2017 we use email or Slack.
An intercom system in a magazine office seems adorably old-fashioned.
The thing about a press conference is that press are going to be there.
It will be on the news.
There will be photos and quotes.
No, your magazine will not get anexclusive, but no one is getting an exclusive.
as soon as she walks in.
This is not like thePrince of England getting engagedto someone.
We all know what England is.
An editor would never ask, What do you know about England?
Thats a story people want to read about.
Is this why print media is collapsing?
At least send an email or something.
Why would that be his first thought?
They didnt even make her fill out new employee paperwork?
Seems incredibly weird theyre just winging it here.
Was the late king Dustin Hoffman?
Or Ser Davos fromGame of Thrones?
Amber says while Skyping her friends.
Amber is a 20-something girl.
How does she not know what a scatterplot is?
She went to college.
And from the looks of it, the princess math is incredibly basic geometry.
Like, seventh-grade math.
It is a problem if Amber is really that confused about triangles.
Why would they serve such a disgusting appetizer at a palace?
Another bit of comedy: The food they serve in foreign countries is gross sometimes!
But this is a cocktail party at the royal palace of a country, with only the nobility invited.
Everything else in this movie indicates that the royal family is classy and has impeccable taste.
Why wouldanyoneserve anything that looks like this at a party?
Its the question the editor-in-chief sent Amber to answer.
But … monarchies are very straightforward.
We know whos next in line to rule.
Its Richards cousin, Simon.
They could probably pretty easily figure out the next 10 people in line to rule.
But fine: the next blood relative.
Its the least exciting cliffhanger in the world.
Youd think that he would want that ready to go, on file somewhere.
So why in this dumb country is the king being crowned by the goddamn prime minister?
From that information, he seems like hes going to be an incredibly bad king.
Being a monarch means being present and going to boring obligations.
Prince Richard demonstrably cannot do that.
And then think howabsolutely insaneit is if all of that time spent together was under false pretenses.
King Richard is not mentally sound, and he should be deposed.
Everyone is rude and also very weird in this universe.
Also, I know this is slightly off-topic, but Amber is terrible at her job.
But hey, who cares about any of that that because now she gets to be a queen!
A Christmas Princeis currently streaming on Netflix.
