Popular Norwegian youth book series has become a film on Netflix. It is also going to be popular.
DRAMA / YOUTH MOVIE
“The Royalty”
Premiere on Netflix on Wednesday 17 August
Screenplay: Ester Schartum-Hansen and Per-Olav Sørensen, based on Anne Gunn Halvorsen and Randi Fuglehaug’s novel series
Director: Per-Olav Sørensen and Emilie Beck
With: Ines Høysæter Asserson, Mathias Storhøi, Elli Müller Osborne, Ina Dajanna Ervik, Veslemøy Mørkrid, Filip Bargee Ramberg, Amalie Sporsheim, Petter Width Kristiansen
The Norwegian crown prince, Karl “Kalle” Johan (Mathias Storhøi), has a reputation as a party boy. He lives in fear that pictures and videos will leak out online and in social media. His twin sister, Margrethe (Elli Müller Osborne), has even more fun, and acts as the royal family’s self-appointed watchdog.
One autumn at the gymnasium, the inner circle around the crown prince’s children is taken over by an alien element. Namely Lena (Ines Høysæter Asserson). She is coming really from the outside: Horten. Her family has just moved to Oslo West. Suddenly she shares a school desk with the “prince fuckboy” himself.
Lena is a captivating young lady. She seems fundamentally unfazed by the nice people she suddenly gets to know, and doesn’t panic when the prince pays her a visit – and she walks around in cozy trousers and a tired top.
In crucial areas, Lena is more worldly than Kalle. Can drink bottled beer and eat sausages with credibility, at parties where there is a barbecue, but none of the other guests so much as taste the food. Bygdøy fiffen have swimming pools on their properties, but rarely use them. Stupid.
Of course, it is the differences between Kalle and Lena that draw the two of them against each other in record time. Kalle falls flat on his face. Lena falls flat on her face. Happily ever after, royal wedding and half the kingdom? It shouldn’t be that simple. Karl Johan has his challenges, and Lena and her family moved from Horten to Oslo for a reason. Of course there will be drama and trouble.
“Royalteen” is the film adaptation of the first book in Anne Gunn Halvorsen and Randi Fuglehaug’s popular youth novel series “Halve kongeriket”. In its time, the book became the subject of a bidding war among the Norwegian publishers, and it is not difficult to understand why:
“Half the Kingdom” is “Shame” meets “Mean Girls” meets “Young Royals”, written by two former culture journalists who are still in touch with their younger selves. It was probably always in the cards that the book would become a film. Yes, I’m betting that “Royalteen” will become a series, just like the books. Because there is good stuff, this here.
You know that feeling you sometimes get, quite early on in a movie or series, that this is going to be good? The feeling shows itself only a few minutes into “Royalteen”. We understand that Høysæter Asserson is a find like Lena. The dialogue, mildly satirical in tone, sits. The production looks good. It flows as it should.
Yes, for a long time the undersigned sat and thought that “Royalteen” would be even a little better than I ultimately thought it would be. The first half works best here. The crush, the anticipation, everything about Lena who is not impressed by the young prince and his silk ramp friends.
Towards the end, the film gets busier. Secrets must be revealed, bottoms must be reached, things must go really wrong before they can go right again, cliffhangers must be planted. The story gets more hectic. I note that reviewers of the book have been left with something of the same impression.
But “Royalteen” will not be boring. It entertains throughout, thanks to a clever script and excellent acting performances. Asserson is mentioned. She is perfectly cast. Storhøi has inherited some of his father Dennis Storhøi’s first lover qualities. Müller Osborne, as the Crown Prince bitch of a twin sister, makes a horrible first impression. Because that’s how it should be, at least until we get to know her better.
It is also a plus that the adult characters in the series, especially Lena’s mother (Veslemøy Møkrid) and father (Petter Width Kristiansen), are portrayed so conscientiously and with interest. They don’t just stand in the way. They are decent, honest people.
Not quite as addictive as “Shame”, perhaps, and not quite as romantic and tragic as “Rådebank”. “Royalteen” is in any case a Norwegian teenage drama from a high shelf. There will be an uproar if there is not a second film. It doesn’t work, not with it the ending.
As Lena says to the king (Frode Winther) as she hands him a bag of goodies: “Drive on”.
