Ruby Robinson (Jen Lilley) is a renowned gemologist who has been hired by the Prince of Gullian to restore the kingdom’s crown jewels in the new Hallmark movie A Royal Setting. Ruby is a New Yorker, unfamiliar with fancy royal protocols, so she’s a fish out of water when she heads to the quaint kingdom, but luckily, Prince Luca (Dan Jeannotte) puts her right at ease... to the dismay of his tradition-loving mother, the queen.
The Gist: When Ruby Robinson (Lilley) is invited to restore the crown jewels belonging to the tiny kingdom of Gullian, she has no choice but to accept the dream job. Ruby has been flown in by Prince Luca (Jeannotte), who is about to be crowned the new king, and she’s only got one week before Luca’s coronation to get the job done. Luca isn’t a terribly traditional guy, so hiring Ruby instead of using the crown jeweler flies in the face of normal expectations – it’s just one of the ways Luca challenges the system he’s soon going to reign over. His mother, Queen Ivy, is disappointed by Luca’s lack of a sense of tradition, but no one is more upset than the Countess Fenella (Laurie Paton), who runs the royal household.
Of course, this means that the Countess has it out for Ruby, she doesn’t like her one bit; she represents all that’s new and non-traditional. Plus, the countess and the queen are dear friends, and not only that, the countess also wants to set her daughter up with Luca. The problem there is that her daughter, Jory, is in love with Luca’s best friend Alexander.
Ruby and Luca get along great, and they’re also supportive of the very obvious attraction between Jory and Zander, so while they plot to set the two lovebirds up, a spark ignites between the gemologist and the soon-to-be-king, too. They just need to prove to the queen and countess that sometimes defying traditions isn’t a bad thing.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? If we’re to believe the plot of most Hallmark movies, royals, especially those who are sovereigns of small, fictional municipalities located in an isolated European mountain range, are conflicted about being royals. They want to shake off stuffy protocols or take the throne but make it modern. A Royal Setting joins the ranks of such films like The Reluctant Royal and The Royal We, about royalty who defy expectations and fall in love with non-traditional partners.
Performance Worth Watching: Laurie Paton who plays Countess Fenella is, in a word, mean, and she plays it with just the right amount of strictness and duty. She’s got a job to do, and that job is to uphold all the royal protocols, and she’s a stickler for those rules, even if it means bossing around her daughter or her future King.
Sex And Skin: None.
Our Take: Things don’t really happen in A Royal Setting, so much as they are explained through exposition-laden dialogue. Even though the plot is not terribly complicated – a prince who wants to modernize the crown and pursue his own dreams of love and happiness – no one in the film seems to be a character, they are simply delivery mechanisms to relay information describing how things should be done, who people are, or what might happen if certain rules are broken.
On top of the fairly dry, context-heavy dialogue, the simple fact is that the stakes in the movie are low, to the point that it’s hard to get excited for anything that happens. Ruby is hired to clean all the priceless jewels, and the big reveal that Luca makes to his people is that… the jewels will finally be put on display after being in storage for years. While there’s a lot of symbolism and metaphors about the jewels representing tradition, while Ruby and Luca represent the passion and individuality of a younger generation, the lack of true chemistry or enticing story leaves this film without much luster.
Our Call: In the world of diamonds, it’s all about the four Cs: Color, clarity, carat and cut. But here, I’ll offer you three Cs of advice when it comes to A Royal Setting. Consider changing channels. SKIP IT.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.