The Christmas Charade

Absolutely loved this!

This was a fresh burst of wintery Christmas mystique for all you Hallmark Christmas movie lovers out there. It has the perfect elements of humor, mystery, romance, and Christmas that combine to create a truly wonderfully different story for the holidays. The characters were very well written. The actors did an outstanding job portraying those characters especially Rachel Skarsten and Corey Sevier, who also.did a wonderful job as director.

Sharon and Sevier have terrific screen presence and chemistry together and, in my opinion, should work together more often in roles such as these. I love it when actors are able to just relax and not take themselves too seriously. It makes them more relatable and believable in certain roles. Plus, just makes me like them more in general because you feel like you actually really get a sense or glimpse maybe of who they are at times "behind the scenes."

In most Hallmark movies I usually cringe or fast forward through at least a tiny bit of them because of the fact that they are just so darned corny or sappy. And I actually LOOOVE Christmas movies AND Hallmark Christmas movies!!! But in The Christmas Charade I found myself utterly enjoying each and every moment...couldn't wait for the advertisements to be over. It is a delightful story and different type of Hallmark Christmas movie experience, one that I hope they will continue with in the future because this has been the MOST ENTERTAINING Hallmark Christmas movie that I believe I have ever seen in my life.

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.

This movie had me at the opening scene. It wasn't the typical high-falutin female lead walking thru her house or office in the boiler plate business suit yaking on her phone with her (empty) prop coffee cup in the other hand. And bonus, no Hallmark hair ringlets, Merry Christmas to us!

I liked Whitney's parents, even if they were nosy and intrusive. It's always a pleasure to see Rob Stewart.

This one is my favorite of the 2024 movies so far. If you like the more light hearted Christmas movies, please give this one a go. If for no other reason than to enjoy the absence of the Hallmark ringlet hair!

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.

Loved it! A different style Christmas movie,that wasn't overly clichéd.

Was cast & acted very well,cinematography decent.. Only suggestion is toning down music,during moments of conversation.

This kept my attention throughout which is a rarity,since stories are predictable only with varied titles or actors.

Like that it didn't seem to take place in a small town,that needed help to survive a crisis.. Hope that Hallmark takes note of viewers enjoying something,that doesn't revolve around festivals & so forth.

The leads did seem to have decent chemistry,story had a few twist & turns that made it intriguing.

Like the Die Hard reference & what seemed,to be True Lies nod.

Worth checking out,during this holiday season.