Royalteen: Princess Margrethe Parent Guide

Princess Margrethe (Elli Müller Osborne) longs for normalcy as she balances the pressures of her royal duties, family drama, and simply being a teenager. After a scandalous incident at prom, she comes under scrutiny from her family turns to substances to calm her growing anxiety and loneliness. Her dysfunctional coping mechanism soon leads to disastrous consequences as her familial and friend relationships crash down around her.

In all transparency, that plot summary I wrote sounds way more exciting than this movie actually is. I had to really flex my writing muscles to even get more than one sentence since there isn’t much of a plot in the first place. That, I think, is the main failure of this production. I’m sure the book it’s based on is more compelling since it would hopefully provide Margrethe’s inner dialogue. Instead, we get an extremely loose story with a whole lot of dour facial expressions in place of a plot. The general idea around how pressure to be perfect can lead to destructive behaviors is interesting, but it doesn’t go anywhere – and it should, for the benefit of its teen audience. This franchise seems determined to point out how messed up modern monarchies are, especially among the young members, but refuses to even suggest that maybe ending the monarchy would solve the a problem. It’s maddening to watch every person involved miss the obvious answer right under their noses.

I wish I could say that this film has educational value for teens on the dangerous of substance abuse, but sadly it never really lands that idea. Yes, Margrethe faces personal and social consequences for her substance use, but other people in her life also use those substances and don’t suffer any consequences. The blame falls more on Margrethe’s circumstances and anxiety rather than on her substance abuse. The film also glosses over addiction in a very juvenile way. The fact that the prescription medication she is abusing is addictive is never really talked about and in the end she’s able to stop taking it cold turkey which is very unrealistic and does a disservice to the real life hard work of overcoming addiction.

This teen melodrama has nothing to say, contains high amounts of negative content, and produces endless boredom, making it impossible to recommend. I can’t speak to the quality of the book series, but I really hope this is the last entry into this “unfun” franchise.