Watched On: Netflix
Duration: 1 hour 24 minutes
Originally Aired: November 11, 2023
Directed By: David Weaver
Starring: Andrew W. Walker, Rachel Skarsten, and Kate Drummond
Please see IMDb for full cast and crew information.
Synopsis
In the first step in working what for her are the coveted international flights, pilot Kate Gabriel is on her first probational flight working for Thomas and Helen Sharpe, who have their own home furnishings empire. One of the factors for them hiring her is her flexibility in being willing to pack up at a moment's notice as she has no personal commitments such as family. This flight on December 20th is from Los Angeles to Switzerland where the Sharpes and thus Kate will be spending the holidays, in addition to the Sharpes conducting some business in wanting to expand their brand into the European market. The flight doesn't end up as Kate hopes as a storm over the Atlantic grounds all transatlantic flights, the only airport where she can land being in a small coastal Nova Scotia community called Christmas Island. With it being the busy Christmas season, Kate and the Sharpes end up being hosted by the town's mayor Maggie Hughes and her family which also includes her father, the town's postmaster Jim McLeod, and her brother, air traffic controller Oliver McLeod. Oliver and Kate had some choice words for each other in the flight being grounded. The duration of the grounding is unknown. Wanting to make a good impression on the Sharpes, Kate, who has nothing to do but wait out the storm along with everyone else, offers to help them with whatever they require while they are in Christmas Island. While Thomas and Helen try to do work in their stranding, what Helen requests of Kate is a job usually handled by hired help, namely finding Christmas activities the Sharpes' two children: fifteen year old Cali who is at the stage of her life of not liking anything about their family, and seven year old Finn who instead wishes for more of a Christmas with his family than they have had recently in especially their parents being too busy with work. This task is not the easiest for Kate in not being a Christmas person and having no family of her own. As such, she feels she has to enlist the help of the town's resident Christmas expert: Oliver. Their collective time together will either drive them crazy or bring them back together under the magic of Christmas, which for Oliver and Kate becomes more important personally as they start to fall for each other, with their Christmas spirit affected by whether they can make it to Switzerland by the 25th.
Review
IMDb user Huggo has come in clutch for me for a second time with their awesome largely spoiler free storyline. And the spoilers that do exist in their telling are things that you'd likely get from the preview, or simply expect because this is a Hallmark Christmas movie after all. If you don't already have some idea of how one of those is going to go, then you've clearly never seen one before.
So is this a Christmas movie? To the facts! There is candy making, tree building/decorating, mailing out letters from Santa (they are on Christmas Island after all), and of course the people of the town come together to help pull of a Christmas Eve miracle. This movie is very solidly a Christmas movie. It's got several typical Christmas magic scenes. But it's worth noting that the romance aspect of the storyline is honestly pretty weak, and the magic impacts the family more than the couple. Which is not a bad thing, but worth noting. I'm not mad I watched this one.
Rating
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