Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Christmas Island’ on Hallmark, Where A Pilot and Air Traffic Controller Find Love and Lobster Traps

Hallmark’s Christmas Island takes the formula of a Hallmark holiday film and makes it feel a bit fresher, thanks to solid acting and some fun original touches to classic Christmas tropes. Rachel Skarsten and Andrew W. Walker lead the way with some real chemistry as a likable pilot who can’t stay in one spot who too long and a playful air traffic controller who are brought together by fate and weather in Christmas Town, Nova Scotia. Does Hallmark nail the enemies-to-lovers trope and help a rich family get in touch with both reality and Christmas along the way? Or is it a case of trying for too much at once and ending up with a cheesy mess?

CHRISTMAS ISLAND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Captain Kate Gabriel (Rachel Skarsten) is anything one could hope for in a pilot. She’s competent, hard-working, personable, and doesn’t have any familial, romantic, or pet obligations that could hold her back from having to fly a plane at a moment’s notice. When Kate lands her dream job of flying charter, she doesn’t hesitate to take it, even though it will mean being out of town through Christmas.

Kate is then given the opportunity to be the captain of a private flight for the Sharpe family, whose luxury lifestyle brand is booming enough for them to have to travel through the holidays for work every year.

The Sharpe crew is comprised of brusque, businesslike mom Helen (Kate Drummond), pleasant but work-obsessed dad Thomas (Jefferson Brown), angsty (she has a blue streak in her hair so you know she’s edgy) 15-year-old daughter Cali (Britt Loder), and precocious 7-year-old son Finn (Lincoln MacNeil). Their former pilot recently retired, so now it’s on Kate to take the family from Los Angeles, California to the Swiss Alps on December 20 and bring them back without incident on December 27.

So, of course, there is an incident, which comes in the form of a major blizzard whilst Kate is flying above the U.S. East Coast. Perhaps it was a bad omen when during the flight, Kate was being her completely pleasant self, only to be getting needlessly sassed by both her co-pilot, Derrick (Anthony L. Jackson), who advises her to “keep yourself to yourself” when she’s just trying to make conversation (I can respect keeping work and personal lives but no need to be rude, sir), and by the air traffic controller, Oliver MacLeod (Andrew W. Walker), whose response to a good-natured comment about hot cocoa is “this is not comedy hour.” Tough crowd.

When the blizzard forces all flights to ground immediately, Oliver seems to find an almost sadistic glee in breaking bad news to Kate to let her know that the only place available for landing is a small airport off the coast of Nova Scotia. Much to Kate’s frustration and the Sharpe’s displeasure, they have no choice but to touch down outside the small Canadian town of Christmas Island, where of course, out of anywhere in the world it could’ve been, is where that smug air traffic controller calls home.

A kindly older postal worker named Jim (Peter MacNeill) offers up his and his daughter’s home for Kate and the Sharpes to stay at while they’re in town. They’re reticent to accept but he insists. They’ll be in good hands, after all, since his daughter Maggie (Lauren Hammersley) is the mayor of Christmas Island (okay, brag!), a location that is more cute Stars Hollow-esque town than an actual island. It turns out that Jim is also Oliver’s dad, so there’s truly no escape for Kate from their airport enemy.

On the surface, the two seem to be total opposites. Kate never stays in one place for too long. She hasn’t celebrated Christmas since she was a teenager, when her dad (who raised her on his own) passed away. Oliver, meanwhile, has rarely left Christmas Island and in fact, has only ever been on an airplane once in his life because he fears the feeling of being out of control. On top of that, he’s a “Christmas expert” (per Maggie), and truly throws himself into the season, so much so that he even at one point dresses up like German folklore figure Belsnickel (like Dwight Schrute did in that one Christmas episode of The Office).

It goes without saying, then, that the two could learn a lot from one another, as Oliver helps Kate experience a Merry Christmas season and Kate helps Oliver let go of the reigns and open up a little bit. And while all of this is going on, the Sharpes embark on their own transformative journey as they learn to utilize their respective skills and passions to remember their roots and help to create a Christmas they’ll never forget, both for themselves and the people of Christmas Island.

Oh, and through it all, there are more mentions of lobsters and lobster traps than you have perhaps ever heard of or seen before unless you live in Maine, which definitely added a certain uniqueness to Christmas Island‘s whole deal.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: It kind of gives The Proposal vibes in that we see a leading lady dedicated to her job who’s forced to slow down and consider a whole new way of life when she has to stay with a cheeky leading man and his family in their cute hometown that has poor cell service and heaps of hospitality.

Performance Worth Watching: While I think Rachel Skarsten did a great job bringing genuine emotion and charm to her lead role as Kate Gabriel, for me, the scene stealer was ultimately Lincoln MacNeil as Finn Sharpe. Every time he was onscreen, he did something or had some sassy little quip that made me laugh and felt so natural I almost wondered if it was ad-libbed.

One of my favorite scenes from the whole movie is just a brief shot of him through a window where he’s in front of what appears to be a green screen background trying to catch fake snow on his tongue. He’s just so committed to the task, how could anyone not be delighted?

Memorable Dialogue: I’d never heard Christmas compared to spinach (yes, as in Popeye’s favorite food) until I witnessed Kate do it in Christmas Island: “It’s not like a Scrooge thing, it’s more like an eating spinach thing… You know how everyone always says how great Christmas is, how good it is for you, but you never really get the muscles you think you’re gonna get.”

A Holiday Tradition: Every year on Christmas Eve, Christmas Island has a unique tradition of a lobster trap tree memorial lighting. They stack lobster traps on top of each other in the shape of a giant tree and then decorate it with buoys that have each been inscribed with the name of a member of the community who has been lost at sea. The end product is truly a sight to behold.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Oh, yeah. I mean, besides the fact that Christmas Island itself is a town, not an island. But it’s on Nova Scotia, which is an island. Also, when Kate asks Oliver why the town is called Christmas Island, he says it dates back to the Mi’kmaq Native American people who supposedly had an elder called “Noel” and then when he passed away they named the town after him. Which kind of left me with more questions than answers.

But hey, let’s not get lost in the weeds. The film’s title is where the juicy action takes place, what could be more straightforward than that?

Our Take: Is it cheesy? Yes, it’s Hallmark. Does it reinvent the wheel? No… it’s Hallmark! But does any of that mean that Christmas Island isn’t an enjoyable viewing experience? Absolutely not. Any holiday movie is guaranteed a certain amount of schmaltz factor, and while this movie definitely has that in spades, it also has enough genuine charm and life in it to result in something pleasant, warm, and festive.

So yes, there will be sub-par CGI, green screens, and effects at certain moments. There will be coffee cups that are supposed to be full which are quite empty (and yes that did get under my skin a little bit). There will even be a montage where everyone’s being merry in a restaurant whilst wearing Santa hats… including the lobster they’re about to eat. But Samantha Herman’s script gives the film some real personality and the actors do the rest of the work in injecting the roles with some extra charisma.

Characters that could feel flat end up having personalities. For example, when we first met Thomas I read him as “generic dad” until his inability to prioritize his kids over work made me dub him “absent dad.” But even he gets his own (albeit somewhat goofy) arc where he learns that being rich and pushing buttons on a screen all day isn’t all it’s cracked up to be because it made him forget his more humble beginnings.

Best of all are Skarsten and Walker, whose love story as Kate and Oliver feels pretty believable thanks to their good chemistry and comedic timing. It’s fun to watch them interact throughout their journey from enemies to something more, and they definitely got some genuine laughs out of me.

Also the whole lobster trap of it all is something I’ve never seen or heard of in a Christmas movie (or maybe any popular media) but it weirdly works and adds a certain uniqueness to the tried and true holiday tropes you’re bound to see in these kinds of movies. Overall, Christmas Island is a fun watch that would make a solid addition to your Christmas queue this holiday season!

Our Call: STREAM IT. While you can expect a certain amount of cheesiness with any Hallmark movie, Christmas Island has enough charm and original touches to make for an entertaining viewing experience this holiday season.