A Princess for Christmas (2011)

A Princess for Christmas is a classic of holiday wish-fulfillment. Jules Daly (Katie McGrath) became guardian to her orphaned niece and nephew when her sister and brother-in-law died in an accident a year ago. The kids are acting out, the nanny quit, and Jules just lost her job in an antiques store in Buffalo when their guardian angel appears. Well, more of a guardian butler.

Sent by the childrens' grandfather, who disowned his son when he married Jules's sister, the butler comes with an invitation to Castlebury Hall for Christmas. Jules is not inclined to accept charity, but with everything else going wrong, she takes the chance. Which obviously, she will. It's called A Princess for Christmas!

For the Scrooge of a grandfather (Sir Roger Moore), who has been in a bad mood since his disowned son died, has another son, Ashton, played by a very young Sam Heughan (yes, it's spelled wrong on the cover art I swiped from IMDB). I'm surprised that I haven't read more about this, since Outlander on Starz has made Sam Heughan a lot more well known. (My sister points out that there may not be much overlap between the sexy-historical-cable show audience and the cheesy-Christmas-movie audience. Just me then, huh?)

I enjoy this movie in spite of some annoyances. The tone goes from slapstick to tragedy and the music can be heavy-handed. The acting is fine, but the accents wander all over Europe. Jules falls down a lot in the first half-hour at the castle. And there's an embarrassing sort of hip-hop dance sequence for Jules and Ashton.

But the setting is beautiful. Filmed in an actual Romanian castle, it has a much richer feel than the usual Vancouver/soundstage TV movie. The relationships between Jules and the kids and then with the family and staff at Castlebury are pretty sweet. And the epilogue feels like it may have been filmed after the royal wedding of William and Kate.

Fun fact: The movie was co-written and directed by Michael Damian, best known for being a soap star on The Young and the Restless. And I'm pretty sure he plays the boss who lets Jules go at the beginning of the movie. He's uncredited for that.