The Royal Treatment is no better or worse than any other romcom. It made me smile and feel happy when I needed it. It will probably do the same for you. You’ll find it on Netflix.
The Royal Treatment stars Laura Marano as a hairdresser in her mother’s rundown hair salon. She mistakenly gets a call to cut the hair of Prince Thomas (Mena Massoud) while he’s visiting in New York City.
The salon is staffed by Izzy (Laura Marano), her mother, grandmother, some over the top caricatures of hairdressers and a few folks from the community who come in often. After the meet cute with the Prince, Izzy and two of the stylists are invited to his fictional kingdom to prepare hair for the Prince’s wedding.
The Prince is scheduled to marry Lauren (Phoenix Connolly), a rich Texas girl who will bring much needed cash into the family coffers. He doesn’t want to marry her. She doesn’t want to marry him.
And, of course, Izzy is there. She’s outspoken, challenging, and big-hearted. She wins over the stodgy Walter (Cameron Rhodes) who takes care of the Prince. The townspeople in the kingdom love her. She’ll change the world and everyone in it, but not if the Prince marries the wrong girl.
Spoiler alert: the Prince won’t marry the wrong girl.
The Royal Treatment was produced by Laura Marano, her mother Ellen Marano, and her sister Vanessa Marano. Truly a family endeavor.
I do make fun of romcoms. I know they are inane. But I keep watching them. The night I watched this one I was trying to watch yet another horror series, this one in Spanish and overrun with the male gaze. I turned that series off and switched to this movie because I knew it wouldn’t give me nightmares. Romcoms aren’t challenging. Romcoms aren’t lurid. Romcoms aren’t mysterious. They serve a purpose.
I wish there were more LGBTQ+ romcoms, more interracial romcoms. They’re coming, but slowly. #FreeTheRomcom