“One Hour? With a Criminal? I’m a Librarian!”
At this point, I’m a little unclear why I selected The Christmas Charade to watch. It was probably the premise that caught my attention, although there is a small chance it might have been the stars. No matter which reason it was, I’m glad it did because I really enjoyed it.
The movie introduces us to Whitney (Rachel Skarsten), an elementary school librarian. And yes, she is just as risk averse as that sounds. She gets her thrills from watching movies. In fact, she has to think long and hard before she agrees to go on a blind date.
Yet, the blind date goes wrong in a way she never could have predicted. She mistakes Josh (Corey Sevier) for her date when in reality, he’s an FBI agent attempting to start an undercover operation. He’s been trying to track a thief for months, and he thinks the next target is going to be a priceless necklace, the Heart of Christmas, which only gets displayed on Christmas Eve.
With Whitney inadvertently inserted into the operation, Josh has no option but to move forward with her as his undercover partner. She is turning out to be surprisingly adept at it. But can they keep the charade up and save the necklace?
When I sat down to watch the film, I realized that I’d seen both of the leads in the Hallmark Mystery movie Jazz Ramsey in 2024. Obviously, Hallmark thought they had great chemistry since it cast them as the leads here. I’ve got to agree. Even though I thought the romance was a bit abrupt story wise, I still bought into it thanks to their great chemistry.
As unrealistic as the set up is (no, the FBI wouldn’t really let a civilian get this involved), if you are willing to buy into the premise, you’ll have a fun time going along for the ride. I feel like a couple of things were a bit rushed, but that’s minor. Overall, I had fun with the premise. I appreciated that they set up Whitney with some skills that made her useful to the case. There were a couple of nice twists and complications along the way.
Because there is a case for the leads to work on, this movie has a minimum of the typical Christmas trappings. Yes, we get a few, but not as many as we might in a typical Hallmark movie. So if you are looking for something different, this would be a good one to watch. Yet, the Christmas elements they put in turn out to be plenty of fun.
As I hinted at earlier, I found the leads to be great, which is a good thing since they carry quite a bit of this movie. Overall, the cast was good. There were a couple of issues with the writing, but most of that was related to twists that didn’t have enough of a set up.
If you enjoy Hallmark Christmas movies, you’ll find plenty
to enjoy here. The Christmas Charade
is a fun example of the movies they produce each year.
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