Navigating Christmas

Full marks to Hallmark for the originality in their 2023 Christmas movies.

Stephen Huszar bounces back after his uneven performance in 'A Royal Christmas Crush', playing a lighthouse owner named Peter who rents his property out to guests who, aside from sleeping there, get to help carry out the duties of the lighthouse.

That's where Melanie (Chelsea Hobbs) goes with her son Jason (Everett Andres) when her ex-husband cancels his Christmas plans with Jason at the very last minute. I bet you can guess what happens between Melanie and Peter...

Some of the old Hallmark Christmas tropes appear, but even those scenes are refreshing.

I enjoyed the mother-son relationship between Melanie and Jason and the way Jason bonded with Huszar's Peter.

This is an excellent Christmas story - well written with believable díalogue, very attractive sets and actual locations (sometimes quite beautiful), and professional direction and cinematography. All of the actors, including the supporting cast, are all excellent, giving natural and realistic performances. The cast is headed by Chelsea Hobbs who has matured into quite a good actress since her performance as Blair in Kimberley Sustad's now beloved "Nine Lives of Christmas" nine years ago. As a tireless mother trying to please, but still guide, protect, and discipline, the son she loves, she is wonderful. As is Stephen Huszar playing a lighthouse owner with a sort of mysterious past. Actually, most of the characters in this movie have experienced a life altering event in their lives, and the film examines how they handle it in one way or another. It's all really well done and is quite the surprise this Hallmark season. Didn't expect this film to be as interesting and enjoyable as it is. Nicely done all around.

I had to look this movie up because I wondered if it was from the 2010s, when Hallmark movies were at their worst. The dialogue was just awful. I couldn't believe this was made in 2023.

Maybe it was the writer's strike or something. They were saying such sappy, cliche lines. Some things were syrupy sweet, and other things were just dumb."What's his story?" then the guy answered "well he's single"(wink wink) I don't know how the actor didn't choke on these words. So many lines were like that. I never heard " hubba hubba" but that's what it felt like.

The teenagers must have been really struggling with the dialogue that they had to say. Everyday after filming they must have said "no one talks like this"

As a true Pacific Northwest native, I really appreciated that in the stock footage at the beginning they actually included a true Seattle Christmas icon...the beautiful Bon Marché Star. Having said that, I do not know where in Canada this was filmed, but the lighthouse was beautiful. I understand it is Canada's oldest lighthouse on the west coast and not too far from where I grew up on Fidalgo Island. Cool!

I liked the concept of guests being able to stay in a working lighthouse and being given responsibilities tied to the lighthouse.

The whole recently divorced storyline I could have done without...especially since the writers at times acted like it had been years since they had spent Christmas together, but they have only been divorced for a year and at the most the son could have only spent one Christmas with his dad...except since he dad had an affair and is still with the woman expecting a baby, that math doesn't really add up either.

If you take out that sad sack story and poor math, the finding a town into Christmas and a male role model I appreciated. Saving the light house I appreciated.

Like several other stories this year and last, I felt like they tried to add too much in. Sometimes keeping a story simple just works. A Christmas Carol, for example, is a simple story...and it works. Based on that, this is not really a recommendation from me...except to anyone wanting to see the Fisgard Lighthouse.

7.4 stars.

This is about a career driven woman who is recently divorced and her son who is not a happy teenager at the moment. His father cancels a snowboarding excursion with him over the holidays, so he's stuck with his mom. She is not happy that the dad canceled, so she has to come up with something last minute. They are not getting along very well, so the holidays may be a struggle and they end up staying at a lighthouse that people book for a different sort of getaway, something new and exciting. They don't realize what they've gotten themselves into. The owner is a bah humbug man, but he's got a good heart and both she and her son very much like him. The son also meets the mayor's daughter and they have a nice little teenage romance. Of course mom and lighthouse guy are the main romance.

There are some inconsistencies and production problems. The script is either faulty, or they had to limit the scenes due to runtime. Either way, some fell a bit flat, but overall it's a good film.