‘A Castle for Christmas’ is a pretty unrealistic tale about a successful author buying a castle in Scotland on a bit of a whim (as a struggling author, I assure you I was crying while typing that sentence); but because Brooke Shield and Cary Elwes looked pretty great in the trailer, we decided to give it a go. It’s the kind of flick you want to watch sometimes – an exaggerated tale about rich beautiful people buying castles and romancing in gilded halls.
Directed by Mary Lambers, the 2021 movie stars Brooke Shields as author Sophie, who goes to scotland for a holiday but ends up buying a castle owned by Myles, a jaded, divorced royal played by Cary Elwes. The movie starts off with a hilarious little tv interview, where Sophie has a bit of a meltdown while being interviewed by Drew Barrymore (playing herself).
First half of the film is quite nice, the it becomes too cliched and overbearing in the second-half. Brooke Shields and Elwes make a decent pair, but as Miles, the actor has a ghastly Scottish accent for no good reason. I am no expert in accents, but for a character who is supposedly Harvard-Cambridge educated, a local exaggerated accent was unnecessary.
The stately old castle is definitely the highlight of the story, which looks splendid when decked up for a Christmas ball. There really isn’t much to critique, it’s a mildly entertaining Christmas romance, stream it on Netlix if the plot sounds fun to you.
It’s a 5/10 from me.
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