The Ledge (2022)

I, like many people, have a healthy fear of heights. Or, perhaps more specifically, a fear of gravity, to paraphrase Terry Pratchett (who said something about the height or fall not being the killer, it’s the impact at the end of your losing battle against gravity). Anyway, The Ledge is a simple thriller that makes good use of a healthy fear of heights/gravity/impact to provide a tight and enjoyable viewing experience. 

Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) and Sophie (Anaïs Parello) are two friends who have a climbing weekend planned. It isn’t just any climbing weekend. There is a special reason for them wanting to climb a certain rock face and prove to themselves that they can do it. Plans change, however, when Sophie meets some nearby men who also have weekend plans in the area. Drinks and fun take precedence, but everything changes when a bad situation takes a turn for the worse, leading to a sudden death. Desperate to cover things up, the remaining group members know that they cannot let one main witness go free. That witness, who caught it all on camera, is Kelly. With seemingly nowhere else to turn, Kelly starts climbing until she finds herself stuck on the titular ledge, enemies waiting for her both above and below.

There is backstory given here, an attempt to add motivation to our main character and build up the potential threat from the clearly very dangerous Joshua (Ben Lamb), but it’s very minimal. Things go from good to bad very quickly, which shifts the focus to the climbing and that haven/deathtrap that is the ledge. Writer Tom Boyle has managed to ease himself into his first solo work, striking a nice balance between the tension and the necessary character interactions that occur in between the thrills and violent acts.

Director Howard J. Ford is the more experienced party behind the camera, and has shown that he can get great results with limited resources (check out The Dead, 2010, but avoid the sequel). Ford manages to make things feel intense and energised, even while many scenes have characters figuring out how to get to one young woman trapped on a ledge, and he does well to include enough convincing climbing footage without highlighting the bits that have to be faked.

Ashworth is a likeable lead, and kudos to her, and everyone else involved, for whatever had to be done at any kind of height that would make me get all trembly (which is generally anything higher than a footstool). She shows grit and determination for most of the movie, and is helped by playing a character who has the wits and skillset to make her continuing survival believable. Lamb is an enjoyable nasty main villain, although he is hampered by the fact that he is written as Obvious Baddie from his very first moment onscreen. Everyone else does fine, but viewers will be waiting patiently for the expected final face-off between the characters played by Ashworth and Lamb, and I don’t think anyone will be left too disappointed by the time the end credits roll.

Although there are few things here that make this truly stand out, The Ledge does well enough on the strength of that core concept. It’s an easy way to create a scenario filled with tension and peril, and both the writer and director manage to make the most of it without making things feel as if plausibility has been stretched beyond its limits. 

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby (2019)

There are some things about Christmas you probably love, and some things about it you probably don't really enjoy. It is nice, for example, to catch up with family members and loved ones you may not have seen throughout the year. But then you tend to have to stay a bit too long, drowsy after the food and/or drink, trying to avoid stepping in any conversational minefields, and just yearning to be back at home with your slippers on and nobody criticising you for dozing off. That is the good with the bad, something you wouldn't miss but never fully enjoy while going through it. And it is in this territory that the A Christmas Prince movies sit. I mean that as a compliment. It is safe, familiar, enjoyable, and can make you feel a bit dopey by the end of it.

The plot is hardly worth summarising, but I will do it anyway. The beloved royal couple are awaiting the pitter patter of tiny royal feet, and the last duty they will perform before the due date is the signing of a royal treaty. But that royal treaty disappears, which is a right royal mess for everyone.

With Nathan Atkins (AKA Nate Atkins) writing the screenplay once again, and director John Schultz returning, after his work on the second movie, this is very much a case of everyone clearly sticking with a good formula that works for them. From the cast to the plot beats, this is almost completely interchangeable with the previous two movies. It's simple stuff, building up tension with a big problem that you have no doubt will be solved before the end credits run, but that's part of its charm.

Rose McIver is still a good lead, now a Queen after the journey of romance that led to the wedding of the previous film, and Ben Lamb is still suitably bland as King Richard. You still have the great supporting turns from Alice Krige and Sarah Douglas, although both seem to have much less screentime in this instalment, and Theo Devaney is once again tasked with making his character, Simon, seem like he could be the villain of the piece. Kevin Shen and Momo Yeung are King Tai and Queen Ming, Crystal Yu is Lynn, who comes along with them, and it is this group who are supposed to be enjoying the Aldovian hospitality, signing the treaty, and then heading home. Oh, and Honor Kneafsey is back in the role of Princess Emily, and manages not to be too annoying.

Viewed critically, and reviewed by standard criteria, this is a bad film. But it gets a pass, because it's one of those films made simply to be a Christmas movie, and we all know that they usually provide different pleasures than other movies. Out of all of the Christmas movies about someone making an impression on a royal family member (and there are a LOT of them), A Christmas Prince remains among the best, thanks to the better cast members. This feels like a natural stopping point, yet I know that I will keep watching them as long as they keep making them (especially if the next one sees the royals trying to be incognito and "normal" while visiting Amber's family in New York - kind of like a clean and Christmassy take on Coming To America).

6/10

Yule Love It: A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (2018)

Rose McIver returns to play Amber in this Christmassy sequel to the Christmassy Netflix film from last year, and you probably won't be surprised to find that it is just as comfortable and enjoyable as the first film. One of the co-writers (Nathan Atkins) returns, and the new director (John Schultz) at the helm obviously knows what is wanted from him.

It's a year on from the events in the first film, funnily enough, and Amber is travelling back to the land of Madeupcountrydonia to marry Prince Richard (Ben Lamb). She takes her father  (John Guerrasio) along with her, and immediately starts to butt heads with the traditional Mrs Averill (Sarah Douglas), who believes that Amber shouldn't be able to do anything that is different from what has been done for hundreds of years before her arrival. On top of that, Amber feels her own wedding getting out of her control, as she tries not to upset the royal family while resenting being pushed around and controlled by an impatient wedding planner (played by Raj Bajaj). Oh, there's also the fact that the national economy seems to be tanking for some reason, putting even more stress on Prince Richard while Amber grows frustrated by her exclusion in a matter she feels she may be able to help with.

As well as those already mentioned, you also get the return of Alice Krige (Queen Helena), Honor Kneafsey (Princess Emily), Theo Devaney (Simon, who may wish to atone for his previous transgressions or may be scheming once again), and more. The band is back together, as it were, and they're happy to play the favourite tunes that the crowd came to hear. McIver helps immensely once again, being a very likeable lead. As much as I enjoy seeing her in anything, including these movies, I'd love to see her in a big theatrical release some time in the near future (hell, if Veronica Mars can get a movie then why not iZombie?).

Schultz does just fine, joining the ranks of the many people who direct these films without putting any fuss or variation from the accepted standards. Atkins stays true to the main characters with his script, thankfully, and throws in the required obstacles to everlasting happiness without making anything too complicated. He doesn't do as well with the comedic elements, mainly involving Guerrasio and/or Bajaj, but everything moves along pleasantly enough.

Of course it's something that many will sneer at, just as so many people sneered at the first film, but if you enjoyed that one then you're going to enjoy this. It tells a new story while sticking closely to the feeling and tone of the first film, because everyone likes what they're familiar with (despite the protests of some).

6/10

Here's a different royal-themed Christmas movie.
And here are those animated classics again.

A Christmas Prince (2017)

Written by Nathan Atkins, from a story he worked on with Karen Schaler, and directed by Alex Zamm, A Christmas Prince is mildly enjoyable seasonal fare that benefits from a few welcome faces filling out the cast, including Rose McIver in the lead role. It also seems to be the next in a series of films from Zamm that mixes seasonal romance with Royals and non-Royals (he has previously given us A Royal Christmas and Crown For Christmas).

McIver plays Amber, a young woman who spends her workdays editing and reworking magazine articles for little or no thanks. That may change when she is tasked with a sudden, quite substantial, assignment. She has to travel to a fictional country (I didn't note it down, but it's one of those movie countries that feels like America or the UK, but isn't, but is full of English-speaking, white people) and get the scoop on an alleged playboy Prince (Richard, played by Ben Lamb). That might prove difficult for most journalists on the case, but things become surprisingly easy when she is mistaken for the new tutor to young Princess Emily (Honor Kneafsey) and finds herself able to work on her story from a privileged insider position.

Despite the fact that it took me a good ten minutes to realise that McIver is the actress I have enjoyed recently while I watched episodes of iZombie, I was enjoying A Christmas Prince from the very beginning because of her presence. When my memory finally made the connection I started to warm to the whole thing even more, safe in the knowledge that this wasn't someone I was able to tolerate. No, this was someone I really liked. Which is a good thing, because the rest of the leads prove to be more of a mixed bag. Lamb does fine in his role, I suppose, but his character is exactly as you think he will be, and doesn't necessarily tally with the playboy image that is being reported. Kneafsey has to alternate between being a young bossyboots and being quite sweet, with the bossiness overdone initially, making her quite difficult to warm to. Alice Krige is fine as the Queen, Sarah Douglas is the stern head of the staff, essentially, and Theo Devaney and Emma Louise Saunders are fairly enjoyable as the "baddies".

Despite the lack of major surprises in the plotting, the script does at least make the expected beats and obstacles a bit more interesting than they could have been. The third act tries admirably to keep things tense, and the fact that viewers should be rooting for McIver means that it doesn't all feel too silly as she takes part in a standard "race against time" finale. Zamm does what needs to be done, no more and no less - we get lovely shots of snow-covered scenery, we get fun shining from the faces of people engaging in snowball fights, we get a number of "dawning realisation" reaction shots, and it's all paced well, and with plenty of ornaments and Christmas trimmings in almost every scene. Like so many films of this kind, you wouldn't really consider it for viewing at any other time of year, which is absolutely fine. It's not made for those other times. It is made for now, made for Christmas, and it works very well in that regard.

6/10

Here is a large selection of Christmas movies to enjoy.
And American elves can pick the same set up here.