Netflix’s royal cinematic universe is expanding with its latest modern-day fairytale The Royal Treatment — this time, it's outside the holiday season. Audiences are introduced to Thomas, Prince of Lavania (Mena Massoud) and Izzy (Laura Marano), the spunky American hairdresser destined to shake up his stiff world. The Royal Treatment plays a lot like The Princess Switch and A Christmas Prince movies — minus the Christmas element. Izzy takes the opportunity to become the prince's wedding hairdresser, but things get complicated when he and Izzy start falling for each other.
Mena Massoud should have been among the new generation of leading men after his star-making turn in Disney’s live-action Aladdin. However, in predictable Hollywood fashion, Massoud has been unable to capitalize on that massive success. Here comes Netflix to the rescue, with a very boring leading man role for him to show off his charisma. Granted, as Izzy says in the film, Thomas is cardboard. If one can recall how bland Prince Richard and Prince Edward were from A Christmas Prince and The Princess Switch, respectively, then Prince Thomas was made in their image. No amount of charm can save Massoud from what is a dull role. But through pure Herculean effort, he manages to be somewhat tolerable and cute in parts.
Despite Massoud’s best efforts, Laura Marano is set up to be this film’s primary protagonist, with so much more attention paid to crafting a sensible, empathetic, and optimistic young woman who is destined for bigger and better things. Izzy is very much the archetype Vanessa Hudgens has made popular in her Netflix films, The Princess Switch. Izzy is a proud Italian-American with a heart of gold, and enough wit and charm to seduce just about everyone she meets. Marano has it in her to make this character her own, and she infuses Izzy with that Disney Channel energy that is quite fitting for these films.
The staging and lighting are nothing to gawk at, and the acting is subpar across the board. Everyone is an archetype, and the narrative follows a very predictable trajectory. The one thing this film has over the others is that there is an effort in the script to round out these characters. The romance is given room to grow and flourish without any gimmicks, whereas the other films are only gimmicks. Holly Hester’s script is notable for actually engaging with the key couple and having them bond over some meaningful conversations. Also, the couple actually helps each other by both growing and learning from their encounters with each other.
It needs to be said that Netflix films like The Royal Treatment are incapable of imagining a fake kingdom that isn’t explicitly European. Despite this being the first of Netflix's fairytale-esque films to feature a man of color as the prince, Lavania, which sits east of Aldovia, and its inhabitant have no distinguishable characteristics beyond being a nondescript European kingdom. A throwaway line is inserted to make sense of it, with Izzy describing Lavania as a melting pot and that hundreds of years ago it was on the trade route to India. But a trade route from where and for whom? We have a brown-skinned prince named Thomas, a “shady” part of town called the “Uber de Gleise” which is German for “Over the Tracks,” everyone speaks English with varying British accents, and cultural indicators suggest the country could be nestled somewhere in Europe, the Mediterranean, or for some odd reason, the Caribbean.
Perhaps it is due to the limitations of filming during a pandemic or Netflix’s fear of making anything seem too ethnic, but the lack of imagination greatly dampens The Royal Treatment's enjoyment. More effort is put into rounding out Izzy’s Italian heritage (which coincidently is also Marano’s heritage) than it is in creating a kingdom befitting an actor of Egyptian heritage. Color-blind casting is all well and good when it comes to providing opportunities, but neglecting someone’s racial and ethnic background shouldn’t be a means for equality.
The Royal Treatment is ultimately benign fun. It is sweet, simple, and boring. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel and lacks creativity, but it does have a noticeable improvement on directing and cinematography that makes it stand out from the rest. Although it is lacking in the invention and depth of the fictional Lavania, and even more so with Thomas, the film is following the blandly laid path of its predecessors. Clearly, the formula is working for Netflix, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved upon. Hopefully, future installments The Royal Treatment (if there will be any) will take note of Izzy’s interest in traveling the world and history and expand its horizons.
The Royal Treatment began streaming on Netflix Friday, January 20. The film is 96 minutes long and is rated TV-PG.
