*This article contains spoilers for the movie “The Royal Treatment.”
You, like many people, probably have a strong opinion on romantic comedies, you either love them or hate them, and there’s barely any in between.
Netflix’s “The Royal Treatment” embodies the classic romantic comedy with all the cliches. While this movie follows the basic pattern of a regular romantic comedy, unfortunately, the production team made some not-so-great choices.
In “The Royal Treatment,” Isabella “Izzy” (Laura Marano) is a financially struggling New York hairdresser. However, her life takes a turn when Prince Thomas (Mina Massoud) accidentally calls her hair salon for a haircut. The prince takes a liking to Izzy and asks her and her two hairdresser friends, Lola (Grace Bentley-Tsibuah) and Dee (Chelsie Preston Crayford), to come back to his country “Lavania” to do hair and makeup for his royal wedding, which doesn’t go as planned.
People watch romantic comedies for the cheesy cliches and the happy endings, which this movie has lots of. Like many other romantic comedies, Izzy, the main character, is down on her luck and happens to need money at the beginning of the movie. She’s painted as a quirky, spunky, yet kind-hearted protagonist, a common theme in this movie style, even though it isn’t a realistic identity for the average person. That being said, many of these cliches are why people enjoy romantic comedies. To me, though, “The Royal Treatment” honestly feels like a Disney Channel movie with adults instead of teenagers, which is ironic, considering Marano was a Disney Channel child star herself.
The film also includes the cliche of the two best friends who encourage Izzy to do what she wants, like sneaking into town after dark, but the two don’t have personalities of their own. We only know them in relation to Izzy, as if their whole world revolves around her, which feels like an oversight by the production crew. In romantic comedies especially, character development is important, so the lack of development in any side characters is unsatisfying.
On top of the unfavorable cliches, Marano’s inconsistent New York accent leaves much to be desired. Marano is actually from Los Angeles, and her accent wobbles back and forth on words like “hair,” among other phrases. The fact that it’s so inconsistent and often Californian-sounding distracts from the plot points in the movie and makes the serious scenes comedic because of how unstable the accent is.
All this being said, there are some cute moments in this movie. When Izzy takes the prince out into town, convinces him to dance with her, then buys him ice cream, the audience can’t help but smile at their romantic encounters. Massoud and Marano truly have great on-screen chemistry.
However, overshadowing the sweet moments is the movie’s attempt to paint Izzy as a savior. She discovers a town in Lavania where the people there don’t have much money, and she relays this to the prince, who knows nothing about the town. Izzy then works to help them by organizing a toy and book drive for the town’s children. While this sounds like a touching plot point, it’s done in a way that feels highly insensitive and like an afterthought to try and make Izzy more likable.
While “The Royal Treatment” had some interesting and heartwarming sections, including the romance between Izzy and the prince, The movie felt tacky and not very thought through. For a romantic comedy connoisseur, this movie would be enjoyable, but as for the average person, I would not recommend it.
