The Christmas Charade

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.

This is the first 10 I have given a Hallmark effort - most are cookie cutter movies or series that if done well with good casting will receive a 7 or on a rare occasion an 8 - but this movie had it all - comedy, adventure, action and Romance - good grief could you ask for anything more - the casting was perfect. Rachel Skarsten was the perfect comedic, action and romantic foil for the loner FBI agent and the mix up to get them together on the wild adventure was priceless - the writing was crisp, the direction almost reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie , which for a Hallmark movie is high praise - I regretted deleting it off my DVR right after I did - I will certainly rewatch this unique Hallmark movie again. - Must Watch.

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.

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.

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.