A Winter Princess (2019 TV Movie) User Reviews

looking for stakes

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 16 October 2019]

Carly is ready to go back to her family but her ski resort boss convinces her to stay to plan for the big winter ball. She is partnered with the owner's brother Jesse. Only Carly has been working incognito. She's actually Princess Carlotta from Landora and her twin brother Prince Gustav has arrived for a fundraiser gala.

For a premise like this, her secret needs to come with stakes. There's no real stakes. She faces no danger from being revealed. The plot is left with limited tension mostly around the fate of the event but even there, it's not like the resort is threatened. The leads are beautiful although they're not the most powerful actors. This is low intensity Hallmark and good for background watch. One can leave the TV on the background while you do something else.

Predictable and sweet, with Great Scenery

[tiffanytallent1981 · 5/10 · 21 May 2021]

These disguised prince or princess movies have been done more times than I can count. This one follows pretty much the same plot as the others. Girl leaves her castle to find herself and falls for non royal boy. She must decide whether to stay with boy and her new life or return home. Problems arise throughout the movie, like her getting publicly outed as a princess. Her family showing up unexpectedly. The ski resort where she works needing to be saved. But In the end, everyone gets their happily ever after.

What I liked about this movie include the beautiful scenery at the snow resort. It really was breathtaking in a couple shots. I also liked that the non royal love interest found out the girl was a princess early on. Most of these movies that happens later and causes some friction. The acting was okay. It's what you'd expect from television actors. Some were better than others. I DID find it strange that the princess was the only member of her family not to have an accent. She blamed it on attending boarding school in America, but would years of that REALLY get rid of everything? Hmm.. I suppose it's better than having to listen to a horrible fake accent! Anyway, this movie is definitely worth watching, at least once. But it's not one of those where you're excited to watch it again.

Winter and royalty

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 10 March 2022]

Expectations were not high for 'A Winter Princess'. While having little problem with Chris McNally, Natalie Hall is more take and leave to me in other roles and the premise had been done to death with variable success already with Hallmark. 'A Winter Princess' was still watched though, because it did sound cute and Hallmark have proven that they can do halfway decent and more films. Despite their 2019 output being patchy and that is including the Winterfest films from that year.

'A Winter Princess' is one of the 2019 Winterfest films and is neither one of the best or worst of them. It is also not among the best or worst Hallmark films from that year, again a middling effort if anything. 'A Winter Princess' certainly has its good things and moments and is not a terrible film by any stretch (or at least to me), but there is also nothing special really about it either and it does very little new with a well worn formula that was already creaking with age.

There are things that 'A Winter Princess' does well. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and well complemented by the photography, that is not static or tries to do too much. Did like too the choices of music, having waltz-like music in parts was a good move and fitted with the concept very well. The middle has some genuinely light hearted and sweet without being too sugary moments.

McNally has an easy going charm and natural charisma, am aware about having said this quite a lot recently but there have been many instances where those two aspects have applied to certain performances in Hallmark films and McNally is one of them. Once she relaxes, Hall is also charming and easy to like. Their chemistry was definitely there and it felt light-hearted and genuine. There are things done differently which was appreciated, including not having the prince incognito.

However, there are shortcomings. Despite some things done differently, the formula is not a fresh one and generally 'A Winter Princess' has a complete lack of originality. The predictability factor is very high here. Also found the early portions hard to sit through, which came over as very cheesy and dull and Hall's acting came over as affected and not particularly relaxed. Good thing that the film did get better, but the final quarter is contrived and on the too convenient side.

Furthermore, the supporting cast weren't particularly good. Especially the king, who was performed in a going through the motions way. The accents agreed are not good, where one can tell that the accents that are attempted by some are not real. The script tends to be very cheesy and stilted and while the characters are not unlikeable there is not much meat to them at the same time.

Summarising, watchable but nothing out of the ordinary. 5/10.

A fun watch

[jonathanrspalding · 7/10 · 21 January 2019]

I think it is unfortunate there are less than 10 small royal countires in Europe. This is because Hallmark really needs a lot of them to keep making this kind of movie.

Obviously, to a degree you have to watch this movie like a science fiction movie. If this was a real thing, this is how people would be.

However, in this movie the acting was better, the plots more defined, and the unreal characters more real than most of its royalty based movies. Also, the less used device of the princess probably helped as well.

All in all, an enjoyable experience and movie.

Nice cast elevates this Royal themed Hallmark movie

[phd_travel · 7/10 · 1 February 2019]

Natalie Hall is pretty in a classy way so she's right for the role of a princess. Chris McNally plays her ski resort love interest.

Princess incognito isn't the usual formula for Hallmark - it's usually the prince but it worked in Roman Holiday so there needs to be more.

For music they use nice waltzes.

Slightly better than the usual Royal Hallmark movies.

Uplifting

[limerickracecourse · 6/10 · 20 September 2019]

Patchy enough but performance of female lead carried it through and made it enjoyable. The male lead was unconvincing and felt like his romantic interest came to light when it was revealed Carlie was royalty.

So blah

[elizabethaloe · 2/10 · 2 September 2020]

There are quite a few Hallmark movies I enjoy because the actors have chemistry good chemistry, the scenery and set design are pretty, and the storyline varies away from the normal "city girl leave high stress job and goes back to hometown, gets talked into planning a festivity, and falls for the handsome widower who may or may not be her high school boyfriend." Don't get me wrong-these movies can be very enjoyable on a lonely, rainy Sunday. I often catch myself immersed in one or two thinking love truly does exist. But then there Re the Hallmark movies like this one, A Winter Princess, where 8 just shake my head at the absurdity. Not only is the set boring, but the actors are incredibly boring and lack any kind of chemistry. The script is typical and incredibly predictable. Princess from small european country pretends to be a commoner. Natalie Hall, while cute, just couldn't quite get herself into the part. She wasn't completely wrong For the part, but her facial expressions and mannerisms were very distracting. She just didn't have any chemistry with lead Chris McNally and together, they were so blah. I almost wanted her to run off with the prince of Denmark because they had better chemistry. Sometimes the background set can rescue a movie but not this time. It was like the film got a small budget and then when shooting started, got to spend only half. So basically, if you're a die hard Hallmark Fan, you might like this on as a background movie while you make cookies or scroll the internet on your iPad. You don't have to watch the whole thing to get the plot.

Some things about this were really different

[the_doofy · 8/10 · 22 January 2019]

The acting was believable for the royals. A viewer gets a sense that the 'royals' have had special training and have grown up in a different world, but NOT over the top different.

The main actress does a very good job with her role, with 2 different faces. Many movies with a princess, the actress does not in any way shape or form give off anything that implies a lifetime of specialty training and decorum. Those kind of movies are real cop out. This movie does a good job comparing the two worlds, without vilifying either one.

There is no proverbial evil antagonist (almost always Caucasian male sometimes female) for a change. I have heard from people in the movie industry that it is hard for script writers to develop an engaging movie w/o one. It was a real treat and relief to just have decent people who mean well even if their views were different as the primary movie characters.

A very nice and engaging low budget movie

At least Carly doesn't have a fake accent

[hallmarkmov · 6/10 · 4 July 2021]

Reading the description that she's a princess from a small European country made me worried Carly would have an annoying fake accent and I was surprised she didn't play into this and it's even explained why she doesn't have an accent. The characters all worked well together for the story. I was slightly bored as we neared the end of the movie wanting it to just wrap up already. It's obvious where the movie was going and I just wanted it to end! I enjoyed the outdoor scenes and wanted to see more of the resort town. There weren't too many side stories which I appreciated, kept the story simple and straight forward. It was nice to see a princess story rather than all the princes coming to America and working at a summer job. I don't recall they explained why she came to this particular resort in the first place? Maybe I missed it.

More Lame Than Usual Hallmark movie

[gordonm888 · 5/10 · 6 January 2020]

This is a typical Hallmark film populated by physically beautiful actors playing characters that have no apparent interest in sex, sports, movies, social media, video games, religion, music or much of anything except, "family," "event planning" and 'gingerbread house building competitions."

Our heroine, an incognito European princess, is planning a Christmas Eve 'Snow Ball' event in a venue atop a ski resort. She gets stranded in the snow for several hours with her male love interest, and while looking at the snowy scenery and the night stars she suddenly gets a breakthrough idea for the "decorating theme" for the Snow Ball. What could it be? The decorating theme for the venue, she breathlessly discloses, will be "A Winter Wonderland." My, how the scriptwriters must have broken their backs coming up with that creative idea.

The Princess' brother, Prince Gustav, and his friend (yet another European prince) are seen getting on a gondola and heading to the top of the mountain for what they say is a double black diamond ski run. In the next scene, they are seen skiing on what appears to be a snow-covered access road - not even a bunny slope. Aw, c'mon, put a little effort into creating a good film, please?

The standard Hallmark Christmas sin is to have their set designers drape everything with white LED lights (and nothing else) and then to have wordly, sophisticated guests babble on about how amazing and unprecedented the decorations are. A Winter Princess is no exception: the Christmas decorations on their sets are cheap, uncreative and required no thought.

On the positive side, Natalie Hall and Chris McNally are both stunningly good-looking as the romantic leads (not much chemistry between them though.) The ski resort scenery is spectacular. And at least we didn't hear one of the lovers say "you weren't honest with me! You didn't tell me you were European royalty! I . . . don't want to see you any more." - the unforgivable thigh-slapping, jaw-dropping Hallmark cliche that is used to create narrative tension in most of their European Royalty films.

Instead of this lame film, check out 'A Prince for Christmas', an Ion channel Made-for-TV film, to see the best of the recent European Royalty Christmas romances.

Good casting leads to good movies.

[texasfolk · 9/10 · 19 January 2019]

Ms. Hall reminds me of Rachel McAdams. Me. McNally is a young Gary Cole. Both bring good acting to challenging roles. European royalty should not have English accents. The story is cute and nice to see a princess in the lead and not a prince.

Also nice to see REAL SNOW. I think you'll see more of Ms. Hall. True Hallmark material. The African American actress was excellent.

All in all worth watching and the ultimate compliment, goats hurry back from the kitchen as to not miss anything - or - putting the DVR on pause as to not miss a second.

You'll like it if you're a Hallmark fan. Might I suggest a few more surprises in Hallmark movies. Perhaps HE is revealed as something HE i Portrays himself to be, but only in a good way. BTW her ball dress was hideous.

Quite delightful.

[MIssM19 · 7/10 · 31 March 2020]

I like royal movies as far as the plot is interesting. This was. I actually laughed. At one moment, at the beggining I thought "This is terrible, I love it". But it only got better. What I couldn't stand were the fake accents. My posh accent may be better (not really) and English is not even my first language.

Natalie's acting at moments was horrible. Chris McNally was the actual reason I watched this (Blame When Calls the Heart) and he did not disappoint. There was an actual winter going on, good chemistry between the leads and and not so common plot. (Incognito princess). That was enough for me. If you are a Hallmark fan like me (o even trashy movies), you will like it.

Predictable

[velvetwynter_2 · 2/10 · 3 March 2022]

Plot is tired and worn out. British Columbia once again looks nothing like Colorado. .. Colorado has real mountains and B. C. doesn't. H And how many times can the word 'Snowball' be used in an hour twenty minutes? (Plus a winter gala named 'Snowball' has been used before like the rest of the plot.)

Mix of other Hallmark movies

[darlingkmp · 7/10 · 8 January 2021]

It was a relaxing show to sit and watch during the present chaos. It had a cute couple as the lead.

sweet

[Kirpianuscus · 16 January 2022]

A mix of royalty in childhood dreams type, Roman Holiday and a ski resort. Romance, a ball, family, gingerbread houses and great decisions, siblings and happy end. All - Hallmark mark, with the good gift to feel be little more than the classic recipe. So, sweet.

A royal princess hides in plain sight

[MickyG333 · 7/10 · 20 January 2023]

7.3 stars.

A European princess is sowing her wild oats at an American ski resort town, all the while keeping her identity a secret. The totality of her desires is simply to spread her wings and live a life free from the burdens of being royalty for as long as possible.

Outside of any limitations this film has I do believe the characters come to life quite nicely. All of the personalities are full and interesting and their interactions are fresh and lively. The dialogue is intelligent and mature. We are brought into the fold in a way that makes us feel part of the story. Can't quite put a finger on how, but 'A Winter Princess' is sufficiently entertaining.

On the other hand, it's not very believable how the princess sounds and acts more American than half of the Americans. She has absolutely no resemblance to a European at all. Her gestures, body language, the way she delivers herself - all very much small town America. At least give her a slight accent from time to time, make the locals look sideways at her just once or twice. That would add some intrigue and accountability. Do us a favor Mr. And Mrs. Hallmark and try not to insult our intelligence with this lack of authenticity. Thank you, and good day.

A Winter Princess

[studioAT · 5/10 · 14 November 2021]

I;m not usually a fan of the 'Princess' style Hallmark film, but this one just about does enough to entertain, with the leads giving good performances.

It flies along with a shorter run time than normal, and although it requires an awful lot of suspension of disbelief, it remains good fun.

Enjoyed

[BA-9964 · 8/10 · 24 March 2020]

An enjoyable movie, the main casting was well fitted to each other. The views and back drop through out the movie was really nice. I really liked the fact that the snow was actual snow and not the fake foam snow that is so easy to detect.

What's with Hallmark's obsession with royalty?

[caseybones · 4/10 · 19 January 2019]

Apparently the writers at Hallmark think every American woman (clearly their preferred audience) is some sort of Cinderella wannabe. This same plot has been used multiple times and it never changes.

It only take ten minutes to know what will happen, who will end up with whom, and how the problem will be solved. Boring and predictable.

The lead actress was awful. I've seen better acting at high school plays. Her overblown "royal entrance" was laughable with the idiotic princess wave and holding her arms out like wings. The dress was beyond hideous but apparently the Hallmark wardrobe folks think that's what American's expect to see. And stop with the idiotic British accents already. Every tiny, hidden, unknown monarchy apparently speaks English with a bad British accent.

The one redeeming grace is the gorgeous scenery which was, honestly, the best character in the movie.

Nice and very enjoyable movie

[agambre · 9/10 · 22 June 2019]

It took me awhile to review this movie. But the more I watched it , the more I am loving it. The chemistry between Chris and Natalie were phenomenal. The rest of the casts were well picked. This movie becomes my "pick me up" movie when I'm a little bit in the blue. It is so much fun to watch. I hope to see more movies in the future with Chris and Natalie.

nice to see a story about a princess

[novagirl11 · 5/10 · 21 January 2019]

I loved the beautiful ski resort scenery! It was nice to see a story about a princess as opposed to a girl meeting a prince. However, I think she could have looked better in the final gala scene: her eyes were bloodshot, her hair looked unnatural and messy, and I didn't like her dress or the cape! But, overall it was a cute concept.

Ok, if you can survive the "accents"

[RenT-83065 · 4/10 · 20 January 2019]

First off, the "accents" in this movie are atrocious! To think this family of father and twin children are cut from the same cloth is laughable. Prince Gus speaks painfully slow. Not believable because he's royalty but as if he's concentrating simply on his accent. The only good thing is that he manages to keep the same fake accent throughout. The actress that plays Princess Carlotta often forgets which accent she's chosen and it comes and goes in every scene. I found it to be distracting to the point I couldn't concentrate on what anyone was saying.

I found it highly annoying how much focus Jesse puts on her life as a princess. What are these two possibly going to talk about after they kiss and ride off in the beautiful winter scenery? I don't care that the movie is obviously predictable in ending but definitely not planning to watch again.

A cast and a landscape that sublimates a script and an unsealed dress

[flo-00496 · 8/10 · 8 January 2021]

A cast worthy of a Gala evening. Natalie Hall, Chris McNally are all beautiful, alchemy works very well between them. This film deserves to be seen and reviewed if one likes the beautiful story of prince and princess (rare when the plot st worn by a princess). Very pretty mountain landscape and snowy and hot chocolate always at Hallmark......

But not everything is as white as snow. There are still details that surprise me and strange. .....

The first scene of the encounter left me perplexed about the rest of the film, so much it was badly played and no credibility (a cap that falls , Jess who crosses the Carly and misses to do it crushed by 3 mafieuse car arriving at a brisk pace) A little far-fetched. I do not question the actors and their play, but rather the script too simple, too light, too childish, too redundant ....

From the moment Nathlie hall this watch in princess, it lacks a little trick, Her dress is not worthy of a princess tale but rather the bottom of the closet, she is ugly. Too bad

Frozen Presentation

[parksidedrive · 5/10 · 19 January 2019]

I looked forward to The Hallmark Winter themed movies.

However, it was very disappointing to watch "A Winter Princess " . The secondary characters were the only thing worth watching. Some of the actors are "regulars" on Hallmark and they are the best! They demonstrate range in every role.

Please give the lead actress some acting lessons. She was portraying a young professional not a junior high student. The combination of over exaggerated facial expressions and poorly modulated voice tone was irritating to listen and watch.

Maybe the next movie will be better.

Enjoyable

[Jackbv123 · 8/10 · 19 January 2019]

I grow tired of the girl meets real prince stories. But there is something about the few stories where the woman is the princess and remains incognito. I enjoyed this move even though ...

Even though Natalie Hall, who is new for me, had good moments and not so great ones acting. Even though the story was predictable. Even though it was a little too much on the sugary sappy side. Even though the three male royals were even less impressive than Hall acting. The King seemed especially bad.

Still Hall and Chris McNally connected. The story was fun. Once again a Hallmark movie speaks the praises of friends or family pulling together for one another.

The usual climax had a slightly different spin to it. Explaining it would be a spoiler, so I hope you recognize what I mean when you see it.