Starring Rachel Skarsten and Corey Sevier
***SPOILER ALERT***
Whitney (Skarsten) leads a sedate life as an elementary school librarian, but that’s about to change. When she’s set up on a blind date with a cat-loving dentist, she arrives at a restaurant and mistakes Josh (Sevier) for her date. Josh is an FBI agent investigating a string of jewelry heists, but his failure to make any headway in digging up evidence means his position is on the line. Now he’s anticipating another heist, this time of the Heart of Christmas necklace, worth a cool $10 million. It’s to be displayed at the art museum’s Mistletoe Ball, a charity event. He assumes Whitney’s the agent who’ll be posing as his girlfriend for their undercover operation but soon discovers she’s not. Still, when the dinner guests Josh is awaiting, Patty and Lou Bateman (Kate Hewlett and Matt Wells), arrive at the restaurant, he introduces Whitney as his girlfriend, roping her into his plan to investigate the Batemans for the heists and hopefully prevent the valuable necklace from being stolen.
PROS
Sevier is best known to Hallmark fans for his acting, but he directed The Christmas Charade, actually his fourth outing directing Christmas movies. The script was penned by his wife, Kate Pragnell.
A clever plot. Pragnell’s screenplay was brisk and breezy, making this movie a deliciously madcap romp from start to finish. It was silly in the best sense of the word, and there was nothing I didn’t love about it.
During the awkward dinner with the Batemans, Whitney told them she was a ballroom dancer. Later Whitney and Josh visited the suspicious couple at home, and while Whitney distracted Patti, Josh wandered through the house, searching for evidence of the Batemans’ guilt. Lou discovered him, and Josh pretended to be lost. Then at the museum, they met with the institution’s director, Henry (James Kall), and informed him of their planned undercover operation to nab the thief at the ball. After that, Whitney had an inspired idea: Why not get a replica necklace made and swap it with the real one? Gladys (Jayne Eastwood) made the copy of the intricate bejeweled necklace in her Christmas shop, providing lightning-fast, while-you-wait service! Next, Whitney and Josh infiltrated the museum to do the swap, crawling through a narrow space in the ceiling. Whitney descended via a rope to retrieve the necklace from a display case, but an alarm sounded, foiling the plan. She beat a hasty retreat. They realized they’d have to catch the thief in the act during the Mistletoe Ball. At the ball, after Patti persuaded Whitney and Josh to dance a tango, the lights went off and the necklace was stolen—not the slightest bit surprising, since it was unprotected. Whitney and Josh chased a decoy, then noticed Henry leaving with a couple of thugs and two hostages—Whitney’s parents, Cheryl and Jim (Cynthia Dale and Rob Stewart). Somehow escaping rope burn, Whitney and Josh made a thrilling descent to the street, landing in some inflatable decorations. This brings me to the film’s delightful twist.
Something unexpected. Whitney’s parents subdued their captors, and Whitney learned that before they’d started a home security business, they’d been FBI agents. During the Mistletoe Ball, Jim had noticed his daughter looking at her purse, which contained the replica Heart of Christmas necklace, and realized something was up. When the lights went out, Cheryl grabbed Whitney’s purse and swapped the necklaces, and Henry made off with the copy. That Whitney’s parents had been FBI agents was a twist I hadn’t seen coming, and I loved the surprise. However, Whitney didn’t. She was upset that they’d kept their exciting secret lives from her all these years and felt she’d been too sheltered and hemmed in by them. Josh was also on the receiving end of Whitney’s wrath, as she thought he assumed she wasn’t capable of carrying out the operation. However, this being a Hallmark movie, they eventually kissed and made up.
Rachel Skarsten. This movie had humor in spades, and its laugh-out-loud moments came not simply from the script, of course, but from the actors, especially Skarsten, who was the funny woman to Sevier’s straight man. Both actors played off each other brilliantly, and I adored their tango. Skarsten has a rubber face and her expressions were hilarious, beginning with when her character, Whitney, was watching a tense thriller on TV. I also loved it when Whitney threatened Josh with pepper spray before he revealed he was an FBI agent. Then nervous Whitney, who’d always played it safe in life, started to show what she was truly made of when she whacked Josh hard while he was coaching her. Watching her creep into the museum while wearing a glaringly ugly Christmas sweater decorated with llamas was also amusing—you’d think she’d wear black to be inconspicuous. Perhaps the funniest moment occurred, however, when she dropped down into the museum to retrieve the necklace and went completely unnoticed by several security guards, who were absorbed in eating some sweet treats. Whitney’s boldness in confronting Patti, who’d stolen a priceless painting of a woman with dahlias, was terrific too; she was actually a lot more like her parents than she’d realized, and it was joyous to watch Whitney embrace her inner action hero.
CONS
None.
My grade for The Christmas Charade: A+
Caroline Kaiser is a professional book editor who specializes in fiction and memoirs, and she’s been guiding writers toward publication since 2007. Caroline is also the author of two ghostly mystery novels, Virginia’s Ghost and The Spirits of South Drive. Before she embarked on an editing and writing career, she spent many years working in a Toronto auction house as an antiques appraiser. Apart from curling up on the couch and drinking tea as she watches Hallmark movies, Caroline enjoys baking and exploring London, Ontario, the picturesque city she now calls home. Her website is www.carolinekaisereditor.com.
