Our culture makes a big deal about having significant others at very young ages. My Big Helper would come home talking about people chasing each other around the gym in kindergarten trying to kiss each other, and adults would often ask if she had a ‘boyfriend’ yet. Really – a boyfriend at FIVE? What’s the point? For years after that began, we avoided books and movies that depicted unhealthy, romantic relationships among the very young in favor of those with good friendship as a central theme. In order to love well, you need to be a good friend first, right?
But when my Big Helper heard that there was a movie called Princess Cut by Watchman Pictures that showed dating from a Christian perspective, she was excited and asked to watch it. She’s thirteen now, and the time is definitely right for having lots of family discussions about what healthy relationships look like.
That was definitely what I enjoyed most about the movie. There were so many great springboards for discussion about what this character was doing well or what a goofy thing that was to do that I kept asking the remote-holder to pause the movie so we could talk about it – so much that after a few times I started getting eye-rolls and groans of, “Oh, Mommy!”
It’s true, though. How involved should your family be in your dating decisions? Is it okay for a boy/girlfriend to tell you what to do? Where to go? To try to guilt you into things? What can you do to be a supportive friend in return? This was just a few of the great questions that jumped out at us as a family as we were watching, and we talked about all of them. I’m sure we’ll be revisiting them in the future, but having this as a starting point made for great discussions.
These starting points came from great places. At some points, the situations in the movie were much more conservative than we are, and in others much more liberal. I appreciated the comparison this painted by having different viewpoints all in the same movie, and by putting them side by side, so to speak, it contrasted them well. We were able to talk about the pros and cons we could see of each stance, and while we didn’t all agree, it made for great talking points.
There will always be viewpoints with which you don’t agree, and of course this included a few of those. They were far enough away from my perspective that it made certain situations feel a bit cheesy, but I don’t think that was a bad thing; I think it was necessary to provide contrast and start those discussions.
What’s it all about? Princess Cut is about a Grace, a lifelong Carolina farm girl, now in her early 20’s, who has dreamed all her life of the day when “Mr. Right” slips a Princess Cut diamond on her finger and swears to love her forever. Tonight may be that night as Stewart has something special planned after 15 months together! But when things don’t go as planned, and romance crashes down around her, it launches her on a quest, aided by her father, to understand what it means to truly love another person. Will Grace finally discover love or ruin her chances for happiness forever?
My Big Helper definitely enjoyed the movie more than my Little Man. It’s big on romance and low on action, although there is a fight scene, and there is visual tension at several parts of the movie. Both kids followed the plot line well and were invested in the movie enough that they wanted to watch, not talk.
Many people claim that Christian films have cheesy, unprofessional acting, but I thought Princess Cut was quite well made. I enjoyed the camera angles, the professionalism of the people in front of the camera, and the variety of settings used in the movie. As a romantic drama, it was a very good one.
All in all, I would recommend Princess Cut for any family or youth group with tweens or teens. It’s a well-made, well-thought-out movie with great potential for both entertainment and discussion.
