This is another low budget Reel One Entertainment TV movie which involves European royalty. It's all over the place. Technically is mostly fine. Music score is mix of clasical music which is actually good, and some stupid melancholic score like in many new ROE TV movies which wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't a bit of annoyingly loud in few scenes. Stock footage was minimal.

I didn't lower a score because of location, but if you start to think about it, it's actually both bad and funny. It was shot in Hamilton, but they used Stockholm stock footage for the capital of fictional Kingdom of Samovia in Europe. It's not a problem per se, except that fictional country is located near Italy, even in Act III we see Pienza stock footage were prince Oliver went so why use Scandinavian city when country is close to Mediterranean? No sense at all. Furthermore, royal cottage where ~80% of the movie takes place is laughable not only because of displaced architecture, but does it looks like one at all? Say what you want, but at least Hallmark royal movies mostly get shot in Transylvania in real castles.

Cast is mostly good. Laura Miyata carried movie. I would say she was even better than in "Love and the Radio Star". Sadly her partner, David Lafontaine was only so-so. I didn't believe in their romance. Annie Clark was the second best. Even with a bit of annoying writing, she still managed to pull it off.

My main issue with the movie is weak directing. Why queen and king looked like they were wearing second hand clothes? I already mentioned royal cottage. What about mixed accents in royal family? The mix of American and British one (king and prince Henry because they are real life Brits). And yet, royal family has German surname...

Overall, I would give it a mediocre rating (3*), but Laura Miyata as a lead, and Annie Clark as a main support carried movie.

And obligatory don't watch trailer (for some reasons here is only posted shortened version) as it's the ROE one and for some unknown reason(s) it shows whole movie compressed.

Laura Miyata has great presence and timing. Her costar is just ok.

For a movie based on a Baker , a lot of inconsistencies .

The biggest one in not knowing how to cook with a scale and using grams . In a bakery, recipes in yes America are scaled for production- especially for supplying a shop and a hotel in NYC.

Pastry Chefs also in America prefer to use and develop recipes in grams and using a scale. You can measure a cup of flour-20 times and the weight will be different every time. Scale a recipe that the original yield is for lets say 12 and you want 120 . Metric is the only consistent

The meringue for the baked alaska was awful . A least they used a blow torch.

A professional baker that is not ready foe dough!

Definitely need a better budget for their clothes

A Baked Alaska is a lot easier than making the pasties that her shop in NY sells

Not a bad movie per say-

So, the big baker can't bake a decent carrot cake because she can't figure out how to measure tablespoons on the scales. (!!!!!?!) Here is a suggestion: use a tablespoon... Next, she saves the day, with a fruit salad, for which she needs a recipe that even tells her the size of the pieces. Enough said.

There are a lot of other inconsistencies and things that simply don't make sense. This happens in the first fifteen minutes so you know not to expect too much from the writers and the plot.

The lead actors have zero chemistry. I haven't seen them in anything else and I don't think I want to. They are bad, no charisma. Their characters are simply annoying. The girl is not very bright, stuck up and narrow minded. The guy is underwhelming, ordinary but very arrogant.

The princess seems desperate for a friend and is much too familiar towards the "baker". The entire "royal" family is more of a parody.

Various characters keep telling us that the prince is handsome. Really?!

Highly unbelievable and not at all enjoyable.

There are too many "royal finds quirky but charming commoner and falls in love" themed films. They are worse and worse so I propose nobody make more, for at least a decade.