While scrolling through Netflix to find something new to watch, I came across a movie that sounded like it was anything but entertaining. “The Royal Treatment” is about a New Yorker and a prince finding love. What a love story.

Izzy, played by Laura Marano, is an Italian hairdresser with lots of opinions. Marano puts on this very underwhelming Italian accent that she slips in and out of. She is in no way portrayed the character through her looks or anything else. While I do think she is a remarkable actress, this role wasn’t for her. Ultimately, she should’ve stayed in her lane at Disney. 

However, Thomas, played by Mena Massoud, did a notable job at representing his character. He made an otherwise boring character seem more interesting. Thomas is the prince of Lavaina and is a rude, selfish person to those around him. Thomas’ parents are forcing him to marry a woman for financial reasons.

 On a visit to New York, Thomas asks his butler, Walter (Cameron Rhodes), to make a haircut appointment. Thinking he was calling a top-notch salon, Walter actually calls Izzy’s salon. When Izzy gets this call and hears how much she’ll be paid, she obviously agrees. Which is confusing considering how many morals she has. As she is cutting the prince’s hair, she notices how rude he is to his help. She thinks that his behavior is unacceptable and storms out. Thomas feels bad and ends up hiring Izzy and a couple of her other employees to do the hair and makeup for his wedding. 

As Thomas and Izzy spend more time together, they begin to fall in love. Which is very uncomfortable to watch since Thomas is still engaged.  A newspaper tabloid publishes a of a picture of them and says that they’re a couple, this causes the King and Queen to kick Izzy out of the palace and fire her. However, the two realize their love for each other and Thomas surprises her when she gets home to confess his love for her. He shows up to her house on a horse which has to be the tackiest ending I’ve ever seen.

Although this movie was incredibly dull, it gave some notable examples of being a good person. In fact, the only scene I enjoyed was when Izzy was walking through Lavaina and was adoring all of the scenery and beautiful people. She sees a couple of kids playing in the street across the way. As she makes her way to them, she sees a completely different side of Lavaina. She strolls into a little town called “Across the Train Tracks.” This place is obviously full of poverty and needs to be rebuilt. In a later scene, Izzy and Thomas give toys, food, and furniture to a school in the town. The prince learns to be grateful for everything he has and thinks about how he needs to fix the poverty in the kingdom. This part could be inspiring to young audience members who yearn to help others in need. 

Netflix’s constant production of crappy romance movies is extremely disappointing because they always cast the wrong actors and have horrible plots for movies.  Films like “He’s All That” and “The Perfect Date” are great examples of how cringy Netflix can get. They need to start to learn how to cast a role and write better stories. “The Royal Treatment” made me want to take the movie straight off the streaming service. 

Overall, this laughable excuse of a romantic movie had a boring plot that couldn’t keep anyone entertained. 

2/5