*Spoiler Alert* This article contains spoilers for ‘The Royal Treatment’

Rick Jacobsen’s ‘The Royal Treatment’ rose to the fourth most-watched movie on Netflix since its initial release on Jan. 20th, 2022. This movie is a typical girl-from-town-meets-prince story, set in modern-day times with modern-day problems. At the end of the day, the movie’s idea is a trope that has been heavily overused, but still a short and sweet movie to watch with family and friends.

The movie starts off with a literal bang: a fire happens in the salon that Isabelle (Lara Marano) is working in. She quickly puts it out with a fire extinguisher, and finds out the cause of the fire is because her coworkers used the microwave while the flat-irons and curlers were plugged in. The first part of the movie before Isabelle meets Prince Thomas (Mena Massoud) is mainly for small laughs and backstory. The scenes of her working in the salon really hit home the ‘poor girl meets prince’ trope as we see how her family is pinching ends for money to run the salon. The director executed the movie all right, but it was a little boring to watch because of the bland trope.

By some miracle, we see the prince’s butler Walter (Cameron Rhodes) accidentally calling the wrong salon for the prince’s haircut, which leads to Isabelle going to the prince’s hotel to give him a haircut. This whole situation is a little too convenient for the prince and hairdresser and has a heavily overused plot detail of accidental instances leading to great things to ensure the rest of the movie happens. If Walter had called the salon he wanted to, the entire movie would have never happened.

The film picks up speed after Isabelle finishes the prince’s haircut. We learn that the prince is engaged, and he needs a salon for hair and makeup for the wedding, so he flies Isabelle and her two coworkers out to Lavania, where Prince Thomas is the heir to the throne.

While in Lavania, Isabelle and Prince Thomas share some sweet moments, while getting to know each other better. The romance in this movie builds up as the tension between the fiancée and Isabell increases. The direction of the romance and the scenes it was added into made Isabelle and Thomas’ romance seem like it was a realistic romance, so this was definitely a plus point in the movie. There was a good balance of plot and romance, so it wasn’t too hard to watch. They interacted with each other in a natural way which added to the realisticness of the movie, especially because it is a fairy-tale.

A generic plot twist occurs in the movie: where the bride-to-be and her mother find out that Prince Thomas is spending a little bit too much time with the hairdresser. Isabelle is forced to return to New York by the family of the bride-to-be. The scene where she is crying in the car is heartbreaking to watch and really made viewers feel that the whole situation was really unfair. The intent behind the plot twist seemed to be to add suspense to the movie, but since this is a fairy-tale-type movie, it was very predictable and bland.

Prince Thomas becomes a knight in shining armor when he ditches his wedding and runs off to New York to be with Isabelle. He comes up to her apartment riding a horse, and at the end of the movie, they ride off on the horse together. The entire ending is basically a repeat of classic fairytales, and the ending felt quite abrupt, as it left me wondering what happened after the couple rode off into the light-polluted New York skyline.

Overall, this movie is a fun movie to watch with family if you don’t think too much about the details. The movie feels like a copy-and-paste of a classic fairytale. If you are a fan of these kinds of stories but enjoy a modern twist, this movie is the right fit for you. Otherwise, one hour and 37 minutes will feel like an eternity.

5/10