#90 – A Winter Princess

So, it’s been a few weeks, and we’re out of the Christmas season. But we’re not out of winter, and I’ve got a bunch saved just in time for a Sunday when my son is sick and napping on the couch. Hang on tight, it’s time for A Winter Princess.

A mountain ski resort in all its glory opens up our movie. We’re at Snowdon Park, where Carly is putting up posters for a Snow Ball. Carly’s last day is today – she’s been the assistant event coordinator for this snow lodge, and the owner of the lodge is freaking out because the actual event coordinator quit and she needs Carly to stay on, but Carly has to go back to Europe for…family stuff.

Apparently, the owner’s brother is an owner of some kind of real estate magnate in Chicago, and his name is Jesse. Jesse and Carly – it’s like we’ve been transported to Port Charles. Jesse is off to the Snowdon Park Lodge to help with the Snow Ball and Carly just guilted King Dad into letting her stay a few more days, and before you can say, PRINCESS! Carly has just met cute with Jesse by saving him from the most improbable drivers in a winter resort movie ever.

How do pipes burst in a snow lodge? Because they did, and now they need a new venue. It’s super important to Carly to be in charge of this event because she never got to supervise anything on her own before, and Jesse is there to “supervise” the whole thing and voila – we have the makings of a major personality conflict. And the Snow Ball Gala is in 10 DAYS!

Sassy Friend Alert – she’s the owner’s friend, and she runs the cafe and she calls Jesse Jelly Bean. So we all love Sassy Friend.

Uh, oh, I think one of Carly’s relatives has just checked into this resort to follow up/spy on Princess Carlotta of Unnamed European Country.  Her twin Gus has arrived and he’s gross already. They’re twins, and he’s gross. He’s got an accent and she doesn’t and he’s gross. Did I mention he’s gross? And Unnamed European country has a name – Landora. I feel that’s near Lichtenstein. Or Luxembourg.

Accompanying Prince Gus is Prince Emile – from Denmark, and honestly, Gus and Emile better end up together because that makes much more sense. Carly asks both royals to not go by their royal titles, and all of that has happened before the first commercial break.

Commercial for the Disney Cruise Line. I’m on the fence.

We also learn that the crazy drivers from the meet-cute were Prince Gus’s motorcade. Carly is also BFFs with the Medic Skier whose a brunette, so she’ll hook up with someone on this trip. But I’m calling Gus and Emile right now, even if Emile is all about looking for Carly while skiing down the black diamond hill.

Called it – Landorra is near Luxenburg! Carly gets a package delivered from her hometown, which prompts Jesse to the fire up the Googler and he discovers she’s a Princess, and seriously, why no one else has done that before this point is beyond me. Emile and Carly and Gus go on some kind of sleigh ride that looks like a surrey with a fringe on top. Emile tries to reminisce with Carly about days at the “Academy.” Carly might be feeling it. But we leave the sleigh ride before we get too much more into it.

Carly and Jesse share a ski gondola where Jesse tells her the jig is up, he knows who she is. Gone is her sense of serenity on the mountaintop!  She’s terrified of being known as a Princess with a capital B for Bitch, and as she pleads with Jesse to keep her secret, Emile drives by on a snowmobile and asks her out for Saturday night. Man, a Princess’s life is BUSY.

Back at Sassy Friend’s bakery (her name is Dee, as in Dee’s Treats) Jesse finds out he’s been away for just too long, because a mountain ski resort is not open in the summer, as it used to be. I blame Global Warming. With all of Carly’s thing about being home for family, Jesse seems to be doing the opposite – he hasn’t been back to help out his sister until just this moment. Huh. While pensively looking at a map of the resort, Carly sees a lodge that is unused and could be used for the Snow Ball! But how will people in dresses get up there if the only way to do it is in a gondola? Those are DRAFTY.  Apparently, there is a parking lot nearby so people can drive. And Jesse thinks having the Snow Ball there will be a great way to advertise the lodge for work in the summer. Whatever.

Brunette friend invites Prince Gus to Happy Hour at some bar, and he doesn’t understand. Reminds me of Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey.

But Brunette Friend is super happy that Carly is working so hard to bring all year work to the town. Just hard work and a can-do attitude can solve miracles. And they’re going to need miracles because Jesse and Carly have to dig out their car that crashed into a snowbank. Jesse also uses this time to quiz Carly about being a Princess, and why she’s in Colorado, and what’s the deal with her gross brother. Apparently, Gus and King Dad don’t get along and all Carly does is keep the peace.

And of course – lots more peace is needed because King Dad just arrived at Gus’s chalet. Whoops. And King Dad looks like a frog.

Carly just had a dash of creativity about the Snow Ball, and as she runs up a snowy hill, she falls and he catches her and sparks fly. Meanwhile, Gus and King Dad are reaching a detente, and King Dad is playing it incognito until the ball so Carly won’t be distracted about the Ball. That is very, very nice of Gross Gus.

Dee treats (ha!) Jesse to some down-home wisdom about hope and giving people hope and blah blah blah. And even though she clearly has some feels for Jesse, she still goes through with her date with Emile, and it’s awkward. But don’t worry, because they are all going to head to the same bar – Jesse and his sister and Dee, and Emile in his shirt and sweater, and his expectations about having a life with Carly, and Carly with great hair.  Seriously, I want that hair. Emile has to leave for a sec because his Ferrari is getting towed, which opens the door for Jesse and Carly to dance in the bar.

Carly doesn’t want to go home -she’s happy in Colorado! It’s all about Jesse’s puppy eyes, and her feeling of having a purpose. She heads into work but her fingers are so cold she can’t type – which means she meets up with Jesse again, and he gets to warm up her hands skin on skin style. Ooh, the tension.

My goodness, Prince Emile wants to be a commoner too – he wants to take a year off from being royal, because Carly seems happier than normal, and that’s the thing about life, right? And Carly is canvassing everyone at the lodge to volunteer for the Snow Ball, and they’ve hit on the wild idea about getting vendors to donate supplies and services for a space on the program. Duh. Jesse’s sister is begging Jesse to stay and help her work on the lodge full time and he is floored to this request and has no response to that.

Gus and King Dad try to figure out Carly’s motivation while standing in the fog on the mountainside. Gus wants to learn more about being a King, and King Dad wants Gus to have a life outside of being a king, and ba-bam, they’re bonding and heading off to Happy Hour. My goodness, the days come and go so quickly here.

King Dad has arrived at the Snow Ball venue and has cornered Jesse, asking probing questions about the event planner, and getting a major feel for this guy who could be a prospective son-in-law.

RUH-ROH – Owner Allison is contemplating selling Snowdon Peak! Because she can’t handle it all on her own. And now Jesse is swimming in guilt. And because nothing happens in a vacuum and because Allison didn’t check the printer, Carly also knows that the lodge is for sale. Always. Check. The. Printer. Off Carly goes to confront Allison about selling her family’s legacy.

And Double Ruh-Roh – not enough people are coming to this Snow Ball, without a celebrity draw. The answer is so obvi, but Carly needs a minute to gather her thoughts before she can put her tiara back on. But before she can resolve on putting that tiara back on, someone has done it for her, and thankfully, for EVERYONE’s sake, she doesn’t immediately think it was Jesse who did it – she immediately goes after her twin brother. And Jesse then gives her an earful about how the Snow Ball is more than her being a princess, it’s about the people, you guys.

And she’s such a People’s Princess, she’s allowing brunette roomie to try on her tiara before Emile comes a-calling to tell her that he’s going to walk the earth, like Kane in Kung-Fu. Emile’s sweater matches Carly’s couch, which matches my Sketchers.  Emile’s idea of walking the earth also includes his Ferrari, so he’s basically going to drive the earth, I guess?

We’re at another father-son moment, and honestly, why are we here? I thought we’d figured all this crap out a few scenes ago.

Carly challenges Jesse to a waltz-off. He’s Day One of Dancing with the Stars at this point, but we still have 20 minutes to go before the final waltz and kiss so here’s hope. They got kiss-blocked by Allison rushing in and gushing about all the people who are coming to their event now that people know a Princess will be there.

OH THANK GOODNESS! Jesse calls his business partner he wants to quit and stay at his family’s lodge, and Carly eavesdrops on the voice message but doesn’t immediately think he’s back-stabbing and awful and trying to acquire the lodge to tear it down. It’s so refreshing when these tropes are NOT being followed.

Day of the ball – closeups of all the fancy decorations and of course, Carly’s royal jewels. And Carly arrives in the gondola, in her gown, and of course, she does. Jesse is now realizing that maybe he doesn’t have enough to offer a Princess from Landorra, but he is soldiering on through the Sad Times like a Champ, even while Carly and her brother dance the waltz to Swan Lake.

Dang, Brunette Roommate totally seizes the moment to dance with a prince at the ball. Good for you Brunette! Do not remember your name.

Carly wants to stay with Jesse on the mountain, but he won’t encourage her to leave her family for him, and now Carly is firmly in the Sad Times  – she just needs a hug from her dad – who thankfully has just arrived at the ball. She thinks he just arrived for her party and he doesn’t disabuse her this notion. And King Dad then goes off and searches out Jesse for the 4-1-1 on his feelings for Carly, and he’s impressed that Jesse is such a stand-up guy.

King Dad tells Carly to be happy, and that she can stay in Colorado. And voila – here’s Jesse to celebrate in this news, and to tell his sister he’s going to move back to the lodge so they don’t have to sell it, and Carly’s on board, too! And it’s amazing and we’re so happy and down to the final waltz. Jesse watched a lot of youtube videos on dancing to be good.

They miss the family gondola and good thing too because I doubt King Dad will suffer to watch his daughter kiss someone in his presence. And just like that, they float off in their own special gondola and the end.

This one was inoffensive. I was happy there were no misunderstandings, but honestly, if there is a royal in secret movie and NO ONE is wearing a sweater just over their shoulders, do we even call it a royal movie? I just don’t know. There were no characters to hate until they get their comeuppance, so I take off one point in the viewing of this movie. If you don’t want to take my word for it, go watch, but I did it, you know just so you don’t have to.