★★☆☆☆

Netflix’s latest film “The Royal Treatment” attempts to infuse the ever-lasting comfort of a Hallmark movie with strong messages of female empowerment and political activism, but ultimately falls flat in refusing to commit to one or the other. In the end, “The Royal Treatment” needs to be treated to better writing. 

Laura Marano stars as Isabella (Izzy), an Italian American woman living in New York City and working for her family’s hair salon. Izzy follows the archetype of many rom-com ingenues: an independent, beautiful, sarcastic woman with a heart of gold. While Laura is clearly unhappy working for her mother, she puts her personal aspirations of one day being a director aside and instead gives neighborhood children free haircuts and doughnuts. 

Enter Prince Thomas (Mena Massoud), the dreamy prince of fictional Lavania, who is visiting New York. Thomas’ loveable assistant Walter (Cameron Rhodes) accidentally books Izzy for an expensive haircut instead of a more reputable, high-class salon, setting the stage for their meeting. How romantic! 

From the beginning, it is clear that Netflix tried to tweak the typical boy-meets-girl-then-break-up-before-reconciliation plot line. This attempt was a failure, as the protagonists follow the same plot trajectory, albeit with a few modern twists. In casting Marano, star of the early 2010s Disney show “Austin and Ally,” “The Royal Treatment” was undoubtedly going to be compared to Disney childhood classics from the last decade. Netflix plays int this nostalgia while taking the film in a progressive direction, but lacks the writing prowess to successfully pull it off. 

For example, in one of their secret outings, Izzy and Thomas visit what Thomas deems the “bad” part of a town in Lavania. However, the area is quite lively and heavily focused on community, prompting Thomas to go to his parents, the king and queen of Lavania, to request that they do more to help the residents of the area.

When this notion does not seem to come to fruition, even though his parents promise to do more for the area, Thomas fights them. Netflix lets the love story take second stage to the advocacy of underdeveloped communities at this moment. It is a noble goal that unfortunately feels too forced. 

Despite its best intentions, the social justice influences only highlight the obnoxiously dull, painfully flat characters of the film — particularly Thomas, because his static character is contrasted with complex, real-world issues in his community. Massoud’s charm saves the character from being totally unwatchable, but he cannot hide the fact that the prince has not had one intellectual thought until the film’s second half. 

“The Royal Treatment” also aims to show that Izzy is her own person, not merely a girl that simply falls in love. She looks out for her family, stands up for her morals and has a genuine respect for other humans. However, Izzy’s character is so static that it is difficult to root for her. What’s more, Marano’s poorly developed New York accent is a sore distraction to the plot. 

The central characters just underscore the fact that the film struggles with its writing, as they are so dull, especially in contrast to major social justice issues the film attempts to tackle. 

With more thought and care put into its character development, the film probably had potential to become a stand-out for Netflix. “The Royal Treatment” has all the makings of a beloved rom-com: a prince, a commoner, innocent flirting, an arranged marriage and a picturesque town — in this case, in a fictitious country. However, the movie incessantly plays into every picturesque, romantic plot line present, rather than carving out a meaningful, original story for Thomas and Izzy. 

At the end of the film, their Happily Ever After will leave you feeling about as lukewarm as most poorly funded TV movies, discounted chocolate boxes and trashy romance novels will.