A Castle for Christmas is the latest Netflix Christmas movie released in late November so that us, Christmas romcom lovers can get their fix early on.

So let’s get started…

A Castle for Christmas starring Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes: Plot Summary (no spoilers, yet

Brooke Shields plays Sophie McGuinty (Sophie Brown after marriage), a rich, successful, bestselling author. She has forged a successful career through her series of romance books featuring Emma Gale and her love interest Winston.

The problem? Sophie commits a cardinal sin in the eyes of her fans: She kills Winston in her latest book. The fallout, as well as the upcoming marriage of her now ex-husband (whose actions did certainly inspire the killing of Winston), gives her a wonderful idea: Go to the Scotland village where her father worked and write there.

In Scotland, she immediately makes friends and happy fans who couldn’t care less she killed off Winston. She even has the almost-fell-but-saved-by-a-stranger meet cute with the handsome local and laborer Myles (Cary Elwes).

When she wants to tour the village castle where her dad spent part of his childhood, Myles offers her a private tour. But their instant attraction turns sour when Sophie sneaks around to do her own thing.

From then on, Myles is Grumpy McGrumperson, acting like he hates everything single Sophie does. It gets worse when Sophie finds out Myles is actually the duke who owns the castle.

To add insult to Myles’ injured pride, he is losing the castle to financial troubles, Sophie is his one willing buyer.

Realizing it is either the banks or Sophie, he offers a tricky deal where Sophie can invest a deposit and abide by Myles’s rules to stay in the castle and learn how to run it for a certain amount of time. Of course, the plan is to make her suffer so that she will run, losing the sizeable deposit.

Obviously, Sophie is tougher than he realized, and it doesn’t help that she is pretty, lovely and everyone loves her.

So it is the will of battles while these two try to fend off their attraction.

You really don’t need me to tell you the end. 🙂

Is it fun? Is it full of cliches? Is it pretty to look at?

Yes. Yes. And yes.

Are you looking for originality? Run.

Surprises? Go away.

Can’t stand cliches? Why are you watching a Christmas-themed romcom? What’s wrong with you?

Those who have a soft spot for Christmas, Scotland, Cary Elwes, and Brooke Shields, and the guaranteed romcom ending? You can stay. This movie is for you.

I had a blast. In addition to the soft spots I mentioned above, the movie has another major draw for me:

A writer as a protagonist.

So, for all the writers among us, let’s look at that film through that lens. And yes, let there be spoilers.

Movies with Writer Characters: A Castle for Christmas

Lessons and tips on marketing, writing, inspiration, dealing with negative reviews, and beyond

Fantasy fulfillment: Successful writer with a large backlist

My favorite part of the movie is how it fulfills my fantasies, and I’m not even talking about the duke. Yet.

I immediately empathize with and root for Brooke Shields’ character Sophie. She has lived a charmed life – having gotten a lucrative traditional publishing deal for a big series.

Being a bestseller is a dream for many of us, even if in the end we’ll just use it as an enabler of bill-paying and writing whatever we want.

In that regard, she is where we want to be in our careers.

Replace romance with the genre you write, and the traditional publishing deal with the path you prefer.

She is a romance author. Hello! Romcom drama author here. The romantic storylines are the hearts of my story. (Apologies for the necessary pun.)

She lives in a big house, has a loving and supportive daughter, and most importantly, as we will later find out, she can afford to go to Scotland on a whim and buy a castle. Financial (fantasy) goals right there.

I might not be in the market for Scotland castles, but I sure as hell want to be able to travel and buy houses when and where I like.

And instead of a daughter, I’ll take many loving and super supportive friends (which she will get pretty soon).

Her agent, despite being pushy, is also pretty sweet and capable. (Repeat after me: She has an agent who believes in her! I mean…)

So basically, right out of the gate, this movie was made for me. I was in love. Love at first protagonist reveal if you will.

And who cares about a little thing called divorce if you are going to give me a Cary Elwes later? (Is it just me, or is he the prettiest and youngest-looking 59-year-old man you’ve ever seen? Do ignore his weird smile on the poster, though.)

So of course, she has a major career-related problem too:

She has killed off a beloved character, and her readers want her head on a stick. Big f—ing whoop. (I mean…it would be nice not to have fans protesting outside The Drew Barrymore Show studio, but the silver lining is that she’s getting booked on The Drew Barrymore Show. People know who she is!!!)

Rejection and negative reviews are par for the course. But one reader’s thrash is another’s treasure. And vice versa.

She has/had readers! She can write tens of books. She can afford a castle. She can afford a big apartment. She can handle this crisis.

And she handles it beautifully (and yes, pretty luckily.)

Not all readers are the same. Great marketing lesson right there. She has fans who still love her and are actually glad Winston is gone. (I’m sure she even has fans who are sick of her main character and want stories with new characters.)

Get social. You will be inspired.

Doing different things gives us ideas. She knows what she wants to write about after a day out in the town with the duke, inspired by a lore. Different country, different people, different activities.

Exercise and fresh air motivate you and make you stronger. 

OK, this is my least favorite takeaway and the least obvious one, but she does go about cycling and spends time outdoors a lot. I’m guessing that has helped her put up with the horrid accommodation conditions the duke made her put up with. I’d have gotten the flu the first week, and then after I recovered, I’d be finding legal and satisfactory ways to kick his royal and grumpy ass.

But then I don’t exercise enough, so I shall, begrudgingly, learn this lesson.

Be nice to fans, and be open to marketing ideas.

She is really great with the first one. She even takes over the castle tour and people love it. Duke’s right hand even suggests putting her books in the gift shop, and she says she wouldn’t go that far…

But she is at a stage in her career where she doesn’t need to do it. In real life, if you have a chance to do classy online marketing, take it. And if I am an author giving castle tours and people are loving me for it, you’d bet I’d give them the opportunity to buy books on site.

It’s okay to take a break. It’s okay to recharge. But don’t give up.

This is the most obvious lesson, but it is there and it’s super helpful.

*

A Castle for Christmas as a Christmas Romcom

Yes, it is cheesy. And sometimes, instead of falling for the duke yourself, you want to give him a good shake and say “What’s wrong with you, man?” because, repeat after me, grumpiness and negativity are not sexy.

He also sabotages his own happiness by acting against his own desires for most of the movie.

It takes him super long to separate his identity from his property and admit/accept/embrace what really matters in life and to him.

That said, he has redeeming qualities that make us forgive him.

1. He does acknowledge pretty early on that Sophie’s ex husband is an idiot.
2. He is smart and he actually has a profession other than just being a royal who inherited something.
3. He is hard-working.
4. He’s super compassionate. He did this brilliant, life-saving thing for the whole village, even though it put him at a severe disadvantage financially.
5. He can be super romantic.
6. He is attracted to a woman his age.

So you have:

1. The opposites attract trope but in a redeeming way. Here opposites aren’t necessarily opposites so much as they have conflicting goals and conflicting ways of dealing with problems.
2. Supportive, super friendly, loyal-as-hell people. No one has a bad heart in this movie. Possible? No. Do we love the escapism? Yes!
3. Christmas, snow, horse-riding, a castle, shiny and colorful lights, a great dance

And best of all, and I can’t stress enough, the leads are in their 50s. We don’t get enough romcoms in this age group.

(Seriously, if I get one more character who freaks about turning 30 and not being married…)

TL, DR?

– The protagonist is a prolific writer who lives the fantasy of many, many real-life writers.

– Scotland is gorgeous. Christmas can be lovely. Dances rock!

– Romantic love and sex are great at any age.

– There is a lot of cheese. Cheese and clichés abound. You have been warned.

*

If you spend your time complaining about how romcoms and Christmas movies are annoying and all the same and so predictable, do not watch it.

The rest of you, especially the writers, jump on board.

So what other Netflix Christmas romcoms do I recommend?   

• Love Hard
• A Christmas Prince series (3 movies)
• A California Christmas series (2 movies)
• Holidate (This technically covers all major holidays and special days, but Christmas is there too!)