[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
A high-powered family trades in the holiday hustle for a holiday with heart Saturday night in Christmas Island on Hallmark Channel in the US and W Network in Canada. Rachel Skarsten (The Royal Nanny) and Andrew Walker (in his fourth title this year after two Curious Caterer installments and A Safari Romance) star in the the film about a commercial pilot who gets to shoot her shot as a private pilot to the high-powered Sharp family with a Christmas flight from California to Switzerland.
When a storm grounds them in the titular Christmas Island, delaying a family vacation where the family part is the asterisk, the foursome, mom Helen (Kate Drummond), dad Thomas (Jefferson Brown), and kids Cali (Britt Loder) and Finn (Lincoln MacNeil) finally get a chance to unplug and be present with each other for the first time in ages.
Meanwhile, Kate has to play nice with Oliver (Walker), the flight controller with whom she shared a not-so-cute, midair meet-cute. Despite that, he and his family, dad Jim (Peter MacNeill), sister Maggie (Lauren Hammersley), and her son, Shane (Will Combs), open their home to the group while they wait for the weather to clear. As Kate spends more time with both families, she lets go of her worry that she’s tanked her test flight and instead rediscovers the holiday joy that’s been eluding her since she was a teenager.
Set and filmed in Nova Scotia, the film features a lot of picturesque wintry locales, and a bingo card’s worth of Christmas-themed activities to create a sweet Christmas confection. The casting who’s who of Canadian folks is also super fun, with Skarsten, most recently in Batwoman and also a familiar face from Lost Girl and Reign, Drummond, who like Skartsten is an alumni of Wynonna Earp, Peter MacNeill from Good Witch and currently in rotation on the CW import Moonshine, Brown from The Way Home, and Hammersley, who’s best known right now for Virgin River. David Winning directs a script by Samantha Herman.
Christmas Island premieres Saturday at 8 pm/7c on Hallmark Channel in the US and W Network in Canada. It will also be available on various streaming platforms. Here are a couple of sneak peeks.
Photos courtesy of Vortex Media/Hallmark Media and video courtesy of Hallmark Media.
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