I've been in a royal mood lately, so let's talk about the 2011 movie about Prince William and Kate Middleton. William and Kate stars Camilla Luddington and Nico Evers-Swindell as Kate and the prince and tells the story (with some artistic license) of how they met at St. Andrews and went on to have their famous fairy tale romance.
The plot is pretty much what you'd expect based on what we know of their lives. They meet in university, Kate is dating someone else, they are in class together and make friends, Kate is in that famous fashion show, Kate and her boyfriend break up, they move into a flat with a couple of other friends, they eventually start dating. They hide from the press and then deal with the press. They break up, they get back together, the movie ends with shots of the *actual* royal wedding (it's kind of fun to watch the highlights again).
Is the movie any good? It is highly enjoyable but it also is clearly a made for TV movie. It's cliché, it's corny, it's sappy. It's also very clearly written by Americans. It features a lot of American slang and turn of phrase. For example, the Prince of Wales says "typical college experience" about 2 minutes into the movie. It also features a lot of "I'm a sad widower" from Prince Charles. Obviously, I actually have no idea what he is like with his sons, but he and Princess Di were separated for 5 years before she died, which was 4 or 5 years before the start of the movie (and a few years before he would marry Camilla). It's always possible that Charles was like that, but I doubt it. My guess is that it was added specifically because it's a cheesy made for TV movie.
Other funky characterizations: Mr. and Mrs. Middleton as sappy sitcom-y suburban parents. Partially it's subpar acting, partially it's the lousy writing, and partially it's just funny. Pippa and James Middleton are goofy siblings who are [completely legitimately] awed by their sister being friends with "Wills" (Pippa gets very excited when Kate refers to him as "Wills"). The other famous sibling-Harry-is seen a single time. He is eating a weirdly awkward and formal meal with his brother and father sometime over Christmas. He has lines like "I just want to be done with school so I can go to Sandhurst and do something that *actually* matters" and commenting that he doesn't seem so bad now, when William says he is considering transferring. Harry should be about 17 for this scene (at least based on my math...). I have no idea if there's any basis for Harry being a whiny and petulant teenager (he kind of reminds me of Order of the Phoenix era Harry Potter actually), but there you have it.
Finally, would I recommend it? Oh yes. It's on Netflix and I watch it all the time. It's way more fun than it should be.
*obligatory special shout out to my darling Poof who encourages me to watch this all the time just because*
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