Christmas Island

6 stars

This has the elements to make a good movie, including top actors and excellent scenery.

Yet, it was ultimately rather dull.

It was not a clunker, hence 6 stars, but it did not hold my interest.

The characters lacked chemistry and the "poor rich" family did not set up the audience for a breakthrough of joy at Christmas. It's not relatable for the audience to see a family on a private jet; something most viewers will never experience.

The scenery was beautiful but without witty or emotional banter, it came across as sterile, dry and without flavor. Fine actors did not save the dull story line.

Most of the Christmas movies so far this year have been embarrassingly poor. Leave it to Andrew Walker to turn that around fast. This is a good, old fashioned, feel good, Christmas movie about family, friends and the unique magic of the Christmas season. Always with Andrew Walker, the magic starts with him. He is an exceptional actor that brings to his roles a down to earth honesty, a genuine caring you can feel throughout the movies he acts in. In Christmas movies, maybe more so. You just want someone like him in your life....and if you are really lucky, during the Christmas season. He is the real deal. His acting seems effortless. Along with him, in this movie, all the other actors, from top to bottom, the father, Christmas Island family, the "stranded lost family"...the town...all bring tangible warmth and caring to their roles. You want to stay in this town. You want to spend Christmas with all of these people. You want Christmas to be like their Christmas. What more could you want from a Christmas movie.

This is one of the best Christmas movies, so far in 2023...and even more ...for the last few years.

No matter who is co-star is - and there have been some very good ones - Andrew Walker is such a surefire bet for Hallmark. Has he ever made a bad movie for them? I don't think so. He is great here with Rachel Skarsten.

Christmas Island tells the story of a VIP jet pilot (Skarsten's Captain Kate Gabriel) and the family she is flying to Europe for Christmas ending up getting waylaid at Christmas Island in Nova Scotia. Enter Walker's Oliver, playing the town's air traffic controller.

It turns out that Christmas Island is like your standard small town that you know well from multiple Hallmark movies, so all the old tropes are there...just on an island. Still, Walker's performance makes the cliches seem less cliched.

Aside from the inevitable romance between Kate and Oliver - their chemistry is good, so that's a box ticked - there is a good message in this movie about time spent with family during the holidays.

Being not so indifferent about Andrew W. Walker, difficult to be too critic about this film.

Indeed, unrealism in huge doses, silly scenes and pretty nice education for a rebelious teenager, technology and a suffocated sappy final.

But my problems are basic two: the fate of co-pilot who is absent in the days of forced life in Christmas Island and the missing romance, natural, with huge potential, between Cali and Shane.

Sure, no expectations from a Hallmark Christmas romance but few questions are not so bad ( the other being the presumed controll of MacLeod family about town ).

But, sure, pretty nice . Like so many other Hallmark movies.

Memorable little Christmas romantic movie. Good chemistry between the couple. You could feel a twinge in the heart strings when Oliver was breaking the news to Kate about the weather.

Only gripe is that the production could have paid more attention to the setting. They went all out with the decorations, but forgot about the weather. Christmas Eve in Nova Scotia and you have folks in autumnwear? I know filming was done in August, but it wouldn't have hurt to dress the actors in timeline-appropriate gear. It gets to me when filmmakers don't put in the details that aid the believability of the story.

And it sure doesn't look like the weather is terrible enough to ground all flights for 3 days. I had to suspend my disbelief throughout all the outdoor scenes.