Royalteen is a young-adult drama movie directed by Per-Olav Sørensen and Emilie Beck and stars Ines Høysæter Asserson, Mathias Storhøi and Elli Müller Osborne, alongside other cast members. The series has a runtime of 107 minutes.
Netflix describes the movie as:
A teenager struggles to keep her scandal-ridden past and a big secret from getting out when she strikes up an unlikely romance with the crown prince.
– Royalteen Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Royalteen seems to start off right in the middle of an ongoing story in Lena’s life. It’s a shock as the story starts, and you are left to scramble to find out the pieces which seem to be missing. Much like our teen with a traumatic past, the drama is an awkward watch from the first minute as it scrambles to give us a rundown of what is going on.
But the important thing to remember is that it’s a teen movie where things get solved in a minute, and there are only small problems in life. It’s nice to actually get out of the horrible reality of our lives and get lost in the perfection of theirs – if only things were this easy and gorgeous!
Royalteen is weirdly rushed and slow at the same time. It’s such a surreal thing to witness but oddly satisfying at the same time. In spite of an awkward start, the movie is the perfect watch for a boring day and has nothing that is too deep or that will make you think much. It’s a royal love story, like the prince and the pauper kinda thing, perfect to get lost for a moment and enjoy a minute where everything almost seems possible.
However, Lena seems to be an interesting character – regardless of her awkward and erratic behaviour, there seems to be an underlying mental health problem in her traumatic past. Lena is told to be a sweet and quiet woman, but there’s stuff in her past that proves it to be otherwise. As the movie progresses, more of her character comes forward, which defines who she is as a person. As she realises who she is and comes to terms with that person, you do feel some form of sympathy, even if it’s just a bit.
On the other hand, twins Karl and Margrethe have issues of their own, primarily concerned with living as a member of the royal family. That’s a huge responsibility to have, but we don’t really get too deep into either of their lives – the entire runtime is mostly taken up by Lena and her confusing past. Margrethe, especially, hardly gets any runtime of her own, which is a shame considering the way the movie ends proves there’s more to the surface than what we are privy to.
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Of course, none of it will come as a shock to audiences; it’s painfully obvious what’s going on. Still, it’s an interesting watch and a rather worthy twist to an otherwise simple storyline. In the end, it ends like how you’d expect it to, clean and without many frills. So, well, just how a teen movie is supposed to end – but we all knew that already, didn’t we?
Ines Høysæter Asserson plays her role earnestly and is actually quite relatable and sweet. She’s a teenager with a lot of conflicting feelings which is expected, considering the circumstances. You feel her happiness and pain and every other difficult feeling that she goes through. Although the twist is painfully obvious, it’s still nice to watch her.
The ending, however, is rather confusing and ends rather abruptly without explanation. It felt like the creators just had to end on a cliffhanger so that they could revisit the story with part two. It’s so confusing as to the necessity of such an abrupt and odd ending choice. I mean, this isn’t a thriller; it’s not like I can sit around and wonder who killed whom and why!
Summing Up: Royalteen
Royalteen is a simple and expected teen drama that does what it does best – keeps things nice and easy. The movie has some poignant and some difficult moments that hit the emotional points in the storyline and add depth. In the end, watch this one for some good time, if nothing else.
Royalteen is streaming on Netflix.
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