Inventing the Christmas Prince
Evan (Ronnie Rowe Jr.) is the cold, detached boss at this rocket science company which leads to his employees calling him 'Dr. Spock'. I assume that's supposed to be a Star Trek reference, but of course we all know that it's MISTER Spock, not DOCTOR Spock because Dr. Spock is the baby guy. Now it is possible that Mr. Spock acquired a PhD or two while on Vulcan, but he doesn't go by Doctor. Not that I'm criticizing the criminal lack of Star Trek knowledge of whomever wrote this particular Hallmarky Romantic Holiday movie, just maybe ask somebody who might know next time. Otherwise, maybe keep Mr. Spock's name out your mouth. Now on to the show!
Anyway, our group or rocket scientists just launched their latest rocket ship, which they observed from their cubicle farm, while watching the launch on 40 inch LCD on the wall. Don't think I've seen that from a rocket control center before, but you know, budget. But while everybody was happy for a bit, the happiness ended when sour Evan walked out his office and told everybody they will have to work on Christmas Eve and maybe even Christmas Day to prepare for the next rocket launch. Well Shelby (Tamera Morwy-Housey), who is the chief rocket scientist, I guess, isn't standing for this no more and quits right there. Unfortunately, Shelby's daughter Grace (Isabel Burch), saw the birthmark on Evan's hand as Shelby was packing her stuff, which Grace believes is the mark of the Christmas Prince made from the nose of a reindeer, and now she's convinced that Evan is the Christmas Prince.
Who is this Christmas Prince? Some silly story Shelby's family passed down for generations, and ONLY Shelby's family, about a Christmas Prince who grants wishes. The problem, as this relates to Evan, is that his boss has told him if another engineer quits because of his lack of social skills, he's going to have to look for another job. Armed with this info, Shelby agrees to come back to work IF Evan pretends to be the Christmas Prince her daughter thinks he is and grant her all of her reasonable wishes. This doesn't work for Evan for many reasons. He's socially awkward, doesn't do well around kids, has very little imagination, and can't think freestyle. But he needs his job and with the encouragement of his hot sister Annalise (Jaleese Greene), he goes along with this nonsense.
As expected, it was rough sledding starting out, Evan's awkwardness getting in the way, every step of the way. Things were looking really bad on a date Evan was forced to go on with Shelby, it was one of Grace's wishes, when Shelby told Evan that her daughter has had a tough life. Evan said it looks like her life was great to him, to which Shelby had to tell him that her dad, Shelby's husband, died two years ago, which he should know since he signed the bereavement papers. He didn't know. Mr. Spock would've remembered that. Just saying. Anyway, that's rock bottom right there Evan.
Ah, but then things start looking up. Evan is taking a serious interest into Grace's life and doing everything possible to make her wishes come true. Not only that, he's being a nicer, kinder boss at work and he and Shelby's relationship is developing well beyond him simply pretending to be the Christmas Prince. But the biggest wish is yet to come, and that would be the Christmas Dance where people come and dance with their dads. Sure, Grace's dad is dead AF, but she has the Christmas Prince now, and he is fired up to come through for Grace. Unless, of course, the bosses at the Rocket Science company decide to have a Christmas Eve after work meeting, requiring Evan to absolutely be there, to discuss something that could've seriously waited until after the new year.
Well, Grace is intensely sad that he won't be there, but she still has hope. Shelby goes off on Evan, but soon realizes that IS work and is sad she went off on him. The work meeting was to tell Evan how much he has improved and that he is getting a big promotion, again this could've held, but Evan lets those clowns know that he has no time for them at the moment and a he has to help make a little girl's dream to come true.
So did Evan make it in time? Did he make that little girls dream come true? Come on now. He dressed up like a real prince, hired a horse and carriage and swept away his little Christmas Queen and her mom into the night like a boss. And then started making out with Grace's mom. At Christmas.
So this is the last Hallmarky holiday romance movie of the year for me, and I've noticed something, in that the last movie always seems to be the best movie. Is it because it really is the best movie or is it because I'm finally done for the year? Who knows? What I do know in regards to this movie is that both Grace and Shelby are in desperate need of counseling because years in, neither of them have adequately dealt with their loss. Evan can't go on pretending to be this Christmas Prince forever. Regardless of all of that, this movie had some genuine emotion working for it. I mean it was a little heavy for a Hallmark Romantic Holiday movie, with all of the talk of dead husbands and whatnot, but it worked here. The couple also worked well together, Ms. Mowry-Housley obviously being a veteran of this genre and Mr. Rowe Jr. now elevating himself to one of my go to guys for these movies, and this has nothing to do with the fact that he used to be a regular on Star Trek Discovery. Make room Ryan Peavey, Michael Xavier and David Alpay, we got a new guy!
The vomit worthiness was mid-range for this one, as I don't recall anyone baking cookies and I'm sure there had to be some caroling, even if I don't remember it, and I know we didn't get a near miss kiss. I guess Evan could've tried to kiss Shelby after their heart to heart about her dead husband, but that may have been in poor taste. But we did make a snowman, we did shop for a Christmas tree and trimmed this tree, we passed out presents, drank hot cocoa and we had a cute kid, though we had no old wise person dispensing knowledge. That was handled by Evan's hot sister, while very wise but not very old.
Anyway, done for another year! See you in October of 2023 when another 200 of these gets dumped on us. Or maybe next week, depending on how I'm feeling.
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