Hallmark has given us another royal Christmas movie but Private Princess Christmas has a bit of a twist to it. It sounds interesting. But is it actually interesting?

Violet (Ali Skovbye) is the princess of Wingravia. She loves all of the perks of being a princess but hates all of the responsibilities. After disappointing her mother, the Queen (Erica Durance), one too many times, Violet gets sent to a boot camp that specializes in turning spoiled brats into leaders.

While Private Princess Christmas did have a fresh plotline (at least for Christmas movies), I don’t think it was executed very well. First off, Ryan (Derek Klena), the soldier in charge of the boot camp, is way too easy on the cadets. Boot camp is supposed to be difficult. That is why it’s boot camp. And we’re talking about a boot camp for spoiled brats. Why would you give into anything they wanted? Instead of being strict and following the rules exactly, Ryan gave in and let them basically do whatever they wanted. Even when they broke the rules of their given tasks, there was no consequence. What was the point of sending anyone there?

Second, the entire reason that Violet was acting out and the Queen (who never actually gets a name) is so distant with her daughter is because the King passed away earlier in the year. So both of them are grieving and ignoring each other. They don’t need boot camp, they need therapy!

There was so much potential for this movie. There are plenty of fish-out-of-water movies where someone gets sent to boot camp to become a better person and those are witty and funny and enjoyable. This was none of those. And I actually wanted to like this one.

Rating: Is there a rank lower than private?

Hey, Lifetime. If you are going to call your movie Dancing Through The Snow, I’m expecting dancing. And I will be very disappointed if there is no dancing.

Michael (Colin Lawrence) is a single dad to daughter, Lily (Bianca Lawrence). When he begins dating Lily’s ballet teacher, Olivia (AnnaLynne McCord), Lily has a difficult time emotionally dealing with her father’s first relationship after her mother’s death.

At it’s core, this movie wants to be about the relationship between a father and daughter after the death of the family matriarch. After all, that is why they cast a real life father and daughter in the roles of Michael and Lily, right? Unfortunately, Dancing Through The Snow doesn’t really connect the way it should. Bianca doesn’t have the acting experience to be able to fully bring Lily to life. As a result, her character is very flat. She acts the same way whether Lily is supposed to be happy or sad or jealous. It makes it difficult for the audience to think she’s nothing more than a brat. And, sadly, the main plot of the movie kinda revolves around her.

My second big problem with the movie is that the title implies there will be dancing. There is a little bit of dancing - a video of Lily and Michael dancing to the Nutcracker Suite goes viral, we see Olivia doing some stretching, and at the very end of the movie, two firefighters do a little bit of dancing with two young girls dressed as ballerinas. Oh, and Michael and Olivia slow-dance in her studio with their outside shoes on. (Hey, networks, take a note - DO NOT WEAR OUTSIDE SHOES ON DANCE FLOORS.) That is the entirety of the dancing in the movie. Hallmark did a much better job last year with Christmas Waltz. Do better, Lifetime.

I went into this movie wanting to like it and it highly disappointed me. You would do better watching last year’s Christmas Waltz on Hallmark or the Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker documentary on Netflix. Leave Dancing Through The Snow off your Christmas list. It is not worth watching.