The Princess Switch (2018)

 

For whatever reason switching places is a popular Christmas movie trope. I guess that Christmas magic prevents anyone from catching on that two completely different people have switched places. 

The Princess Switch is one of Netflix’s first efforts to compete with the Christmas movie juggernaut Hallmark. It stars Vanessa Hudgens as Stacy, a baker from Chicago and as Margaret a duchess from a fictional European country. So many Christmas tropes in one film. A switch and a royal falling in love with a commoner and might as well include the baking aspect in there as well.

Stacy and her best friend Kevin (Nick Sagar) have been chosen to compete in the televised international baking competition in Belgravia. She, Nick, and his daughter Olivia travel to Belgravia from Chicago in order to compete as well as get away from Stacy’s ex who has quickly moved on after their breakup. While setting up at the studio, Stacy bumps into Margaret. Margaret is in town to prepare for her upcoming wedding to Belgravia’s Prince Edward (Sam Palladio). 

They’re surprised at their resemblance, but handle it well all things considered. Margaret is pleased to discover the resemblance as she’s eager to experience a normal life before getting married. Stacy agrees to take Margaret’s place as the switch will occur the two days that Prince Edward is out of town and the two days before the baking competition.

The logistics of the script don’t make sense. No one in Belgravia, other than the royal family, knows what Margaret looks like. This is used as a rather clumsy explanation as to why Stacy and Margaret are able to switch places in the first place. It’s also rather odd that Kevin isn’t in on the plan. Kevin would have no motivation to reveal the switch. Keeping him in the dark is only used as an excuse to fall for Margaret, and in doing so thinking he’s falling for Stacy, but as he finds out soon after who he really fell for there’s no dramatic payoff for that confusion anyway.

There’s also a scene in the film where Stacy’s biggest rival tries to sabotage her in the competition by cutting the power cord off of Stacy’s blender. Again, there’s no dramatic payoff because somehow in the entire five hour cake baking competition, there’s no need for Kevin and Stacy to use the blender until the last half hour in the competition. 

Of course, Margaret and Kevin fall for each other as do Edward and Stacy. You can predict that as soon as the switch happens. Still, this movie is meant to provide a distraction and that’s exactly what it does.

The film starts to pick up once Kevin, Olivia and Stacy are actually in Belgravia and once it does, it’s actually easy to put aside the plot holes in the film. 

Despite a bad British dialect Vanessa Hudgens isn’t bad as Margaret and Stacy and I like Nick Sagars and Sam Palladio. It’s a ridiculous plot, but to get some holiday cheer into your system it does its job.