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.

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.

I actually really enjoyed the two main characters in this Hallmark Christmas romance. I thought the serious FBI agent role of Josh was perfect for Corey Sevier, who had excellent chemistry with Rachel Skarsten. Whitney (Skarsten) is a play-it-safe librarian who stumbles into the middle of an FBI art theft operation being conducted by Josh.

Dropped down in the middle of the operation, Whitney gets read into the FBI sting by Josh and his boss. Whitney has to play Josh's fake girlfriend as they infiltrate a charity at an art museum in order to catch a thief before he steals a priceless necklace that only makes an appearance once a year.

I loved the Christmas-lite approach to this Hallmark Holiday romance...I also really liked the twist with Whitney's parents. The FBI training was fun and I really appreciated that Whitney actually had some skills that she brought to the table.

For me this was a surprise and I really enjoyed it and think fellow romantics will also.

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.

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.