Noël au manoir enchanté

I expected a take on Kate and Leopold. It is that only in the main premise and maybe some other minor ways. It really is an unusual Christmas premise.

Ryan Paevey and Erin Cahill have a very comfortable chemistry. They have plenty of screen time together and watching them interact is enjoyable.

I really didn't know what to expect. There are some things that it is obvious are going to be important to the story. How or to what ultimate end was never certain in my mind. In fact the climax went differently than my guess. The last shot is interesting.

Funny total aside: my sister and I joke about enumerating all the little devices that appear in many of these movies. One of them is that in almost every romance movie, the leading lady comes down a set of stairs dressed beautifully and the leading male looks on in awe. Watch for the switcheroo on this.

In the spirit of the holiday season, I sat down to watch the 2020 Hallmark Christmas movie titled "A Timeless Christmas", believing it to going to be just another super cheesy and sappy romantic Christmas movie that Hallmark spews out by the dozens. And with Ryan Paevey on the cast list, I must admit that I definitely believed it was going to be one of those archetypical Hallmark movies.

But still, as I hadn't already seen "A Timeless Christmas" from writers Duane Poole and Ron Oliver, I sat down to watch it and give it a fair chance.

And I have to say that since December 1st, I have sat through more than twenty Christmas movies and "A Timeless Christmas" definitely ranks among the top three of most enjoyable and entertaining of Christmas movies thus far.

I really liked the storyline in "A Timeless Christmas", so writers Duane Poole and Ron Oliver definitely managed to put together a very wholesome and entertaining story.

They had cast some nice talents for the movie, and it was refreshing to see Ryan Paevey (playing Charles Whitley) to rise up and shed the mantle of a dime a dozen Hallmark Christmas movies, because he was so well-cast for this movie and carried the movie quite nicely along with his co-star Erin Cahill (playing Megan).

"A Timeless Christmas" was so much more than the archetypical romantic sap and cheese that Hallmark tends to push out there during the holiday seasons. And if you enjoy Christmas movies, then you must certainly should take the time to sit down and watch "A Timeless Christmas" from director Ron Oliver.

My rating of "A Timeless Christmas" lands on a well-deserved seven out of ten stars.

Nobody should watch Hallmark films with massively high expectations, their Christmas output particularly. If a Hallmark fan or wanting to see as many Christmas films as possible, expectations would understandably be higher. They are very formulaic with most of them being more of the same narratively and structurally, apart from sporadic attempts at changes of pace. There are a fair share of them though that are surprisingly above average and even good amidst the many average and less ones.

The 2020 output from Hallmark did vary in quality but was not near as bad or wildly uneven as it could have been. None of the films from the batch were really terrible, and a small handful of them were actually very good. 'A Timeless Christmas' is one of the very good ones and benefits from having the most unique premise in a while for a Hallmark Christmas film and the performances. 'A Timeless Christmas' is a fine example of why Hallmark's Christmas output or even Hallmark in general should not be immediately scorned at.

Did find the final third a little too on the rushed side from trying to cram in a little too much with not enough time to explore it properly.

Have often found the music for Hallmark films over-used and in need of a toning down tonally too. There are pleasant moments here and there is some authentic atmosphere, but part of me did think it still could have been used less in placement and been more understated.

On the other hand, a lot is done very well indeed. Erin Cahill is heartfelt and charming, Hallmark do not always score when it comes to having female lead characters that are likeable, but they score here. She has a pleasing and hard to dislike chemistry with Ryan Paevey, equally appealing, and for me their romantic pairing was more rootable than most Hallmark romantic pairings. The supporting cast do more than solidly too.

There are some lovely locations here, complemented very well by the photography, and some pleasant moments in the soundtrack. The script is light-hearted without being too frothy and is not as cornball or as soapy as other Hallmark Christmas films. The story deserves a lot of credit for doing something different, a word usually not associated in the same sentence with Hallmark, and is a lot more creative than most Hallmark films. Concept-wise and its execution 'A Timeless Christmas' is to me in the top 5 of the most creative when it comes to Hallmark Christmas films, and is the most unique. It is not as formulaic and there is less of the Hallmark cliches. The story is also very charming and heart-warming and the time travel element is not wasted, avoiding convolution too.

Concluding, surprisingly very good which was not expected. 8/10.

This was a beautiful Christmas film by Hallmark. The premise is about a wealthy business man who disappears a week before Christmas one hundred and fifty years ago and wakes up at his desk in contemporary times. His home has been turned in to a museum, his factory torn down, his fiancé married having married his rival who became great benefactors to the town, and his maid-Rosie's great granddaughter running the museum that is his house offering tours.

Rosie's granddaughter, Megan, initially doesn't believe that he is who he says he is...although the resemblance to the painted portrait in the front hall is striking. Could he be Charles Whitley? Megan actually did her college thesis on Charles Whitley, so no one knows more about him than her. When she notices the horseshoe shaped scar on his hand and Charles is able to direct her to a secret compartment under the floorboards...Megan becomes a believer. Megan decides to help Charles get back to his time.

Together they piece together the events of his last night, he was repairing a Christmas clock for his fiancé and he winds it on the second full moon in December, called the Christmas moon. Megan finds the clock and they are ready for the next Christmas moon. Meanwhile, Megan shares with Charles all of the Christmas traditions that he was always to busy to participate in...and learns that he was afraid to get close to anyone afraid he might loose them. During the process Charles learns what he has been missing and starts to fall in love with Megan. Will he return to his time in the end?

Will Megan leave the museum and become a history professor at the local college?

Ryan Paevey was wonderful in this film...as was Erin Cahill playing our two leads. They had wonderful chemistry and really made these characters come to life. It was a magical story, just what Christmas is all about.

I loved the emphasis on old fashioned manners...something really lacking in today's day and age. It just went to show how good manners are always appreciated and never go out of style!

Romantic, magical and filled with love and Christmas. Loved the film and think that if you are a fan of Hallmark that you will love it too.

Kudos to Hallmark for reaching beyond the usual holiday-romance formula and adding an element of science fiction. This film includes time travel and the dialogue even mentions H.G. Wells' classic "The Time Machine".

Industrialist Charles Whitley (Ryan Paevey) awakens one morning to find he has been transported more than a century into the future. He meets a beautiful twenty-first century woman, Megan Turner (Erin Cahill), who decides to help him return to his own time.

The first part of this story is very similar to "Time After Time", which is an excellent film from 1979 (not to be confused with "Somewhere in Time").

The two leads are excellent in their roles. Paevey is fairly convincing as the human anachronism, balancing mild bewilderment with romantic interest.