The Christmas Charade

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.

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.

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.

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 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.