Under the Christmas Sky

I always enjoy a good Ryan Paevy movie and was looking forward to this movie. I had the vibe about this movie like I did when Hallmark paired Andrew Walker and Jodie Sweeten together. A HUGE miss. Hallmark keeps pairing these newbies with seasoned actors and I understand why they do it but this movie was painful to watch and the actress just wasn't very good. Maybe I'll try rewatching the movie again one day but it definitely won't be this holiday season! I hope they'll give Paevy much better stories and costars moving forward. Perhaps pair him with Lacey Chabert, Bethany Lenz or Erin Cahill again!

Under the Christmas Sky is one of my favorites so far this year. An attractive and really pleasant cast in a story that's a bit of a change from the usual formula. The leads were great together and the cute couple in the secondary romance were adorable. In fact, the casting was one of the best parts of the movie. The best friend was especially well done. Plus a story involving NASA, a planetarium and a bit of Christmas history is a big win for me. A nice change from the Christmas pageant/parade/small town plot.

I am a little puzzled by the negative reviews. Maybe people don't like science being included in Christmas? A shame. If you enjoy science and space exploration this will be fun for you.

The movie follows two intertwined romantic stories, both developing in a Planetarium. Kat, a should-be astronaut, grounded after an accident, is teamed to work at creating an exhibit with David, the divorced father of a preteen girl on wheelchair,. Kat's buoyant younger brother, Andy, who is trying to find a role in his life, helps Celeste, a volunteer in charge of decorating the location. To add some zest to the otherwise ordinary amorous themes, this production inserts marginal references to space traveling and astrophysics, less than relevant Christmas content, and the necessary, superficially dealt with, human message that disabilities do not hamper human dreams. In reality, the movie is not about space traveling and little about Christmas. The main romantic story is bland. Ryan Paevey looks unexplainably subdued and Jessica Parker Kennedy alternates graceful moments with many others where her gestures, poses and expressions are awkwardly exaggerated. Being Italian, I do understand speaking with your hands, but her body language appears inappropriately on steroids. Andrew Bushell, as Andy, is quite vivacious and single-handedly offers moments of genuine warmth. Overall, the film is inoffensive, family-friendly and watchable, though way more generic than the window dressing tries to sell it for.

I know Hallmark is working hard to be inclusive, which I applaud, but I think they need some better scripts.

This was the story of Kat Butler, an astrophysicist who was in a car accident that left her with a blind spot in one eye that is preventing her from completing her mission to go to the space station for NASA to continue her research on the solar probe. (I was a little confused because there was no real mention of her austronaut training which I think you need to go into space for NASA.) She is sent home for another month of sick leave where she is surrounded by the love and support of her family, which includes her sweet and competitive...but teasing brother Andy. Kat ends up volunteering at the local planetarium and helps curator David put on a Sun centric Christmas display.

There were two romantic storylines going that of Kat and David and Andy with the planetarium's barista Celeste, but there was just so much going on I think that the romances really took a back seat. David is a divorcee whose daughter is in a wheelchair and is obsessed with space...so, Kat became her hero.

I absolutely loved Kat's very Canadian parents' Christmas decorations in their home! They had trees of all sizes all over their house and I not only loved it, but I aspire to it! In fact that may have been my favorite part of the film...although I do like Ryan Paevey who plays David. I think my favorite character was actually the brother Andy...even though he didn't have his adult life worked out he was very positive by nature. He is lucky that he has his parents home to live in.

I thought the sun Santa caricature really needed some work. But what I did really appreciate in this film (in addition to the parents' indoor Christmas trees) was the pagan traditions around celebrating the sun for winter solstice...and the idea to bring that to their Christmas opening of their sun installation.

So, to recap...I don't think I would recommend this to my fellow romantics as the romance gets lost in this film which has a little too much going on in it for a Hallmark holiday romance.

Kind of sad this is the movie that Ryan Paevey goes out with as apparently he has stepped away from acting.

Can't really put my finger on why I didn't like it more. Someone called the movie clunky and I somewhat agree with that. I feel Hallmark has successfully pulled off multiple storylines in the Sister Swap movies but this with the two romances didn't seem quite as cohesive.

The storyline was okay but definitely very different and not the normal feel good Christmas or Hanukkah movie I'm used to. A bit too secular for my taste.

For the most part the actors were pretty good. The museum director and mom felt a little off but not horribly so. Maybe part of the clunkiness is the early interaction with the museum director. Part of it was the storyline and part of it was the acting. That said, the museum director was fine in the parts for the party for the opening of the display.

As many have pointed out, Andrew Bushell as her brother is great.

I really like Ryan Paevey but don't always feel he's cast in the best movies for his talent or with the best actresses so maybe this is a case of not utilizing his talents with the best script since I felt the chemistry was okay with Jessica Parker Kennedy. I hope she does other Hallmark movies.

What I didn't like about the script was a plot hole. It was sort of like a pothole that kept tripping up the characters. Towards the end of the movie, you know, where Hallmark puts in the drama bit, Ryan's character David is questioning Jessica's character Kat when he overhears her get a job offer in another city.

SCRIPT ISSUES She acts pleased that she's offered the job. Then to David acts surprised and says I think he's going to offer me a job. Duh, he just did! Also, why would she be so surprised when she knows her BF has told the person about her and he came all the way there to see the display and her? David states, VERY NICELY, he thought she was going back to her old job at NSP and she acts confused and frustrated then says, along with a few other remarks, I'm just figuring that out. Then, referring to an earlier kiss, she asks, with an annoyed expression, Is this because of what happened earlier? Then @ the last scene, before the trade Hallmark kiss, She says that she already knew she wasn't going to take the job. Why didn't she just tell him that in the first place instead of acting all confused and frustrated!? Poor script writing definitely made it feel clunky

PS if you like Ryan Paevey and haven't yet seen A TIMELESS CHRISTMAS, I think it's one of his best movies with Hallmark.