REVIEW: Intensity And Romance In ‘Royalteen’

In the Norwegian Netflix Original teen romance drama Royalteen, directed by Per-Olav Sørensen and Emilie Beck based on the book Arvingen by Anne Gunn Halvorsen and Randi Fuglehaug, Lena (Ines Høysæter Asserson) is starting at a new high school after a mysterious but clearly traumatic incident. It happens to be the same high school the royal twins Kalle (Mathias Storhøi) and Margrethe (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne) attend.

As far as teen romances go, Royalteen is a pretty decent one. It’s neither too gimmicky nor corny. Sure, it’s about falling in love with the Crown Prince, and we see all the classic moves of a scorned sister trying to sabotage them. But I think what makes this movie work so well for me is that it’s specifically not a comedy. It’s a drama. And by leaning into the dramatic instead of relying on jokes, it’s able to make the whole movie feel earnest.

The romance between Lena and Kalle gets heated pretty quickly, and it’s rather difficult to get a sense of the passage of time, but their chemistry is strong enough that I got over that pretty quickly. Instead, I was just waiting for the shoe to drop and whatever Lena’s secret was to be revealed, as well as the other layers of secrecy going on amongst their friend group. The movie gets very serious and dramatic quickly whenever it depicts serious matters. The editing in some of these scenes left me dizzy, and the music gets melodramatic, but on the whole, it was an appreciated tactic. The rapid flashes to scenes from Lena’s past, her spinning head, and the changes in lighting induce a heavy gravity over the circumstances to the point where you’re left pondering what the truth is and feeling the anxiety over when it will be revealed and what will happen when it is.

I was really impressed with the way the movie handles the truth, too. The vast majority of the characters in Royalteen don’t fall into the usual tropes; there are no jerk friends, self-obsessed ones, or jealousy. There’s one big ongoing flaw they have as a collective, on the whole, they’re truly just supportive, good friends. It’s kind of shocking to see in a teen movie but absolutely welcome. So when the heaviest of all the movie’s plot points drops, I was seriously glad to see how it was handled because it’s rarely handled well.

Sometimes I wonder if everyone was almost too nice. For a movie about dating the Crown Prince, I kind of expected a bit more mess. It’s a pretty tame affair. Part of this is perhaps to the detriment of not being a rom-com, but it’s also perhaps that most of the characters are kind of flat. Nobody outside of Lena grows very much from start to finish. Sure, Kalle is charming through and through, and I appreciate that he never devolves. And Margrethe plays the over-protective and kind of rude sister, just right. But it’s relatively static ultimately.

This may well be easily remedied if the movie receives the green light for a sequel it’s clearly fishing for. The ending of Royalteen is totally unsatisfying with its complete cliffhanger and somewhat jarring conclusion. There is a second book, so a sequel seems quite possible, and I’ll be rooting for one, both because I enjoyed this movie on its face and because I just have so many questions still and unresolved conflicts.

Royalteen knows exactly what kind of movie it wants to be, and for that, it is able to thrive. While it’s a little flat in some places, the romance at its center certainly does it for me, and it’s nice to see them surrounded by truly good and nice people rather than the usual set of tropey characters.

Royalteen is streaming now on Netflix.