Netflix’s rom-com The Royal Treatment raced to the top of the streaming platform’s top 10 list when it was released in 2022. It’s hard to see why.
Directed by Rick Jacobson and written by Holly Hester, the film follows Izzy (Laura Marano), a hairdresser in New York who receives a call from the Prince of Lavania’s butler, Walter, about giving Prince Thomas (Mena Massoud) a haircut whilst he is in town.
When Izzy shows up to the Prince’s hotel they realise they’ve called the wrong salon, but she does such a great job that Prince Thomas invites Izzy and her co-workers to Lavania to be the stylists for his impending royal wedding.
As you would expect, sparks start to fly between Izzy and Thomas. The Royal Treatment is full of corny jokes, predictable storylines and all the typical cliches you would expect.
The fictional country of Lavania is a multicultural melting pot with no set accent, much like its predecessors, Aldovia from A Christmas Prince and Genovia from The Princess Diaries.
The generic storyline line of a rich Prince learning to enjoy the simpler things in life from his working class crush leaves much to be desired. There’s also – of course – two quirky best friends, Destiny and Lola, who add very little to the story other than their characters screaming with glee every time they’re on screen. At least someone’s happy about this film.
The extremely bad Bronx accents and an over-the-top French character with an accent which could be considered borderline offensive make it hard to focus on the actual story being told, so it’s probably a good idea that they made it so uninteresting.
Throughout the film we see both the main characters battling with an inner conflict. Does Izzy carry on working as a hairdresser or does she take over her local community centre? Does Prince Thomas go through with his arranged marriage to Lauren, the daughter of a Texas real estate tycoon, to please his parents or does he follow his heart?
As with every good rom-com, The Royal Treatment ends with a classic public declaration of love which involves Prince Thomas riding a horse through the streets of New York and climbing up a fire escape to Izzy’s apartment.
So much was left unaddressed that unfortunately a sequel seems inevitable. The ‘over the tracks’ town in Lavania that was about to be bulldozed? The royal family being bankrupt? The bride-to-be’s dog-purse business?
Do we really need these questions answered? Probably not.
