This movie knows very much what it is: a cliche, Hallmark-style Prince and the Pauper-inspired fairy tale, and it does a decent enough job at creating cute and heartwarming moments (or eye-rolling ones, your mileage may vary). Hudgens has good chemistry with both male leads, and the acting can be weak but it's mostly because the dialogue they have to work with is incredibly cheesy. All that's expected from a movie like this, though.
What stops me from rating it higher are the truly clumsy story elements. Cheesy's fine for something like this, and my disbelief was firmly suspended from the second I hit play, but on a basic plot level, there are a lot of elements that don't really go anywhere or just didn't work. For example, the rival baker could be removed completely without affecting the plot one bit. There's a point toward the end where she sneaks in and sabotages the lead's baking equipment. There's an entire scene devoted to it, and you're led to believe it'll probably lead to, well, anything. But instead of slowing the characters down or creating a hero moment for anyone, the lead notices the cut wire mid-competition, her partner says "it's ok, just do it by hand," and then she does, and they win. It added nothing.
The other major problem is that Hudgens' characters are framed as being incredibly different people -- one of them is spontaneous, the other always sticks to the plan, one is forthright and outspoken, the other shies away from the spotlight -- but in practice they're completely... well, interchangeable. One of them goes off brief and gets in a spontaneous snowball fight that ends with her tangled up on the ground with her love interest. The other goes off brief and plays a spontaneous game of Twister that ends with her tangled up on the floor with her love interest. The duchess sneaks out of the castle to bond with the common people. The baker drags the prince off to bond with the common orphans. Everyone acts like "the duchess" is behaving strangely by being spontaneous and informal ("has she always been so different?"), but the duchess is *supposed* to be spontaneous and informal. It's the baker who's supposed to stick to the plan, but that's something she's never shown doing. There needed to be a much bigger difference in the characters' personalities, because there really wasn't anything to distinguish them beyond an accent.
I also would've liked the wish-granter's story to resolve in any kind of way, even if the Vanessas just locked eyes with him at the end and had a realization moment. Maybe that's a less major issue, but it felt very unfinished to have him grant their wishes, keep appearing to help them out along the way, and for them to never have a spark of realization or gratitude for what happened.
And probably the weirdest moment in this film was the very pointed in-movie ad for another Netflix Christmas movie.
Overall if you're just looking to turn off your brain and have fluffy Christmas feels for a while... there are probably better movies to go to, honestly. But this wasn't terrible, and at times verged on cute. If you're a fan of other movies in this genre, you'll probably like this one too.
What stops me from rating it higher are the truly clumsy story elements. Cheesy's fine for something like this, and my disbelief was firmly suspended from the second I hit play, but on a basic plot level, there are a lot of elements that don't really go anywhere or just didn't work. For example, the rival baker could be removed completely without affecting the plot one bit. There's a point toward the end where she sneaks in and sabotages the lead's baking equipment. There's an entire scene devoted to it, and you're led to believe it'll probably lead to, well, anything. But instead of slowing the characters down or creating a hero moment for anyone, the lead notices the cut wire mid-competition, her partner says "it's ok, just do it by hand," and then she does, and they win. It added nothing.
The other major problem is that Hudgens' characters are framed as being incredibly different people -- one of them is spontaneous, the other always sticks to the plan, one is forthright and outspoken, the other shies away from the spotlight -- but in practice they're completely... well, interchangeable. One of them goes off brief and gets in a spontaneous snowball fight that ends with her tangled up on the ground with her love interest. The other goes off brief and plays a spontaneous game of Twister that ends with her tangled up on the floor with her love interest. The duchess sneaks out of the castle to bond with the common people. The baker drags the prince off to bond with the common orphans. Everyone acts like "the duchess" is behaving strangely by being spontaneous and informal ("has she always been so different?"), but the duchess is *supposed* to be spontaneous and informal. It's the baker who's supposed to stick to the plan, but that's something she's never shown doing. There needed to be a much bigger difference in the characters' personalities, because there really wasn't anything to distinguish them beyond an accent.
I also would've liked the wish-granter's story to resolve in any kind of way, even if the Vanessas just locked eyes with him at the end and had a realization moment. Maybe that's a less major issue, but it felt very unfinished to have him grant their wishes, keep appearing to help them out along the way, and for them to never have a spark of realization or gratitude for what happened.
And probably the weirdest moment in this film was the very pointed in-movie ad for another Netflix Christmas movie.
Overall if you're just looking to turn off your brain and have fluffy Christmas feels for a while... there are probably better movies to go to, honestly. But this wasn't terrible, and at times verged on cute. If you're a fan of other movies in this genre, you'll probably like this one too.