The Christmas Charade

The one thing I don't forward to in these Christmas movies are the same warmed-over tropes offered again and again by writers with no imagination.

The Christmas Charade broke the mold, even if it did offer a toned-down version of the "fake boyfriend trope". That element didn't dominate the story, and that made it easy to forgive.

Cory Seiver is one of the actors in these movies who can play different roles with different personalities. Not all of the actors have that talent. Here his serious FBI agent is full of engaging and amusing moments.

Rachel Skarsten does a great job as a quirkly librarian hooked on adventure romance movies. When they meet accidentally and insert her into his case, the dialogue and situations provoked some laugh out loud moments, which we find rare in these movies, but appreciate when they show up.

The story is funny and engaging, and actually manages to touch on Christmas in a more solid way than a lot of these movies do.

Whitney (Rachel Skarsten), is a librarian living a hum drum life, and finds herself in a real-life adventure when a blind date mix-up leads her into an undercover FBI operation. She is forced to pose as the girlfriend of Special Agent Josh (Corey Sevier), and gets involved with the strategy to help track down and capture a thief targeting the valuable Heart of Christmas necklace that will be on display at a Christmas Eve charity ball.

This is a fun adventure movie with many surprises and twists and turns in the plot to keep you entertained. Corey and Rachel have excellent chemistry together and are perfectly cast in their roles. There is also some wit and humor thrown in for good measure too, like a hilarious reference to the movie Die Hard. Corey is one of my favorite actors and he even directed this movie and did an excellent job! THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST HALLMARK MOVIES!!! An enjoyable watch and not what you'd expect from a Christmas adventure.

Throughly enjoyable. Like prior roles in Hallmark Christmas movies "Royal Nanny" (MI 5 agent) and "Christmas Island" (Commercial airline pilot), Skarsten is now a character right out of Hitchcock's classic "North by Northwest": Rather than Cary Grant it is now her character that through mistaken identity becomes involved in a complicated plot to prevent a jewelry heist. With scenes that recall "Diehard" and "Mission Impossible I" from years ago "Christmas Charade" is a delightful romp in the "this is fun to watch" genre regardless of whether Karsten could really slide down a rope suspended from the overhead ceiling. If Tom Cruise can do it...push the "I believe" button and so can Rachel. I still have "Royal Nanny" and "Christmas Island" on my DVR...and "Christmas Charade" is now added to my "watch again" collection of Christmas movies.

Whitney is a librarian whose life is not that risky and adventurous, and that´s okay because she was raised like that. While going on a blind date, she accidentally sits in the wrong table, the one in which Special Agent Josh is undercover. So, she has no other choice but to follow the ruse,

I was no expecting to like this this much. Last year I watched Rachel Skarsten in a movie in which she goes undercover as a nanny and didn't really liked it. But, this premised sounded fun.

Corey and Rachel had great chemistry, and perfectly played their roles. The movie has a twist at the end that I didn't see it coming. And yes, maybe some things are not realistic, like the FBI things but as long as the romance is, i´m cool with it.

It's fun and maybe at the beginning quite slow but definitely makes up for it later, Corey Sevier also served as the director and just found that him and Skarsten have another Hallmark movie together, might check that out.

Definitely worth checking out.

The Christmas Charade was pure fun and breezy joy from beginning to end. Rachel Skarsten (Whitney) brings a big dose of brains, beauty and comedic skills to this gem of a movie (pun intended), and Corey Sevier (Josh) hits it out of the park again as both actor and director.

The quick synopsis is: Librarian Whitney is on her way to meet a blind date at a restaurant. FBI agent Josh is headed to the same restaurant to meet a fellow operative who'll be posing as his date, and their assignment is to meet and gather info from a couple who are suspected art thieves at said restaurant. A date mixup ensues (the fellow operative is delayed by overzealous carolers) and Whitney is mistaken for Josh's date and quickly becomes involved in the covert operation, which involves a pricey Christmas necklace.

I loved the spy theme of the story, complete with Bond-esque music and not the usual cutesy background stuff played in most Hallmark caper movies. It's always fun to see Jayne Eastwood (The Santa Clause), and the rest of the supporting cast is great! This is a holiday must-see, so don't miss it.