Mission illuminations de Noël

This is an excellent Christmas story - well written with believable díalogue, very attractive sets and actual locations (sometimes quite beautiful), and professional direction and cinematography. All of the actors, including the supporting cast, are all excellent, giving natural and realistic performances. The cast is headed by Chelsea Hobbs who has matured into quite a good actress since her performance as Blair in Kimberley Sustad's now beloved "Nine Lives of Christmas" nine years ago. As a tireless mother trying to please, but still guide, protect, and discipline, the son she loves, she is wonderful. As is Stephen Huszar playing a lighthouse owner with a sort of mysterious past. Actually, most of the characters in this movie have experienced a life altering event in their lives, and the film examines how they handle it in one way or another. It's all really well done and is quite the surprise this Hallmark season. Didn't expect this film to be as interesting and enjoyable as it is. Nicely done all around.

7.4 stars.

This is about a career driven woman who is recently divorced and her son who is not a happy teenager at the moment. His father cancels a snowboarding excursion with him over the holidays, so he's stuck with his mom. She is not happy that the dad canceled, so she has to come up with something last minute. They are not getting along very well, so the holidays may be a struggle and they end up staying at a lighthouse that people book for a different sort of getaway, something new and exciting. They don't realize what they've gotten themselves into. The owner is a bah humbug man, but he's got a good heart and both she and her son very much like him. The son also meets the mayor's daughter and they have a nice little teenage romance. Of course mom and lighthouse guy are the main romance.

There are some inconsistencies and production problems. The script is either faulty, or they had to limit the scenes due to runtime. Either way, some fell a bit flat, but overall it's a good film.

The title and cover would have you believe "Navigating Christmas" is about romance, with the lighthouse central to the story, and it is... But, not just as the meeting place of our primary couple, the lighthouse owner, Peter (Stephen Huszar👍) and the divorced, single -mom, Melanie (Chelsea Hobbs). It's a metaphor for Melanie, her son (Jason), and Peter to "navigate" their way through the pain of divorce, its effect on children, and the difficulty, from both sides, of single-parenthood. Once you get to the core of the movie (past a bit of shaky acting by Melanie and Jason, which kept my rating from 9.5), their back histories fold into the story - Melanie makes a rash (without planning or research) decision to stay at the lighthouse to appease her son's heartache, over a missed opportunity to spend time with his dad. Peter has waited too long to deal with his guilt of avoiding his dad (now deceased), so long, that he must return to settle the mounting debt of the estate, or risk losing the lighthouse to a heartless developer. Of course, Christmas traditions (especially from a tight-knit small town) are instrumental in stirring up the good feelings from the past, and distract Jason from his teenage angst by leading him to a crush with the mayor's daughter. Melanie is distrustful and harsh on Peter, a few times, despite his connection to Jason. He reads what Jason is experiencing, perhaps better than Melanie, because he sees similarities to his own life-experience. The film-directing is also complimentary to the storyline. There's a feeling of true magnetism between Peter and Melanie and there is good timing (ie. Tension) with eye gazes and the kisses (not obligatory). There is also some clever use, a few times, of foreshadowing, that is meaningful. Hallmark lost many of their stars to Great American, but fortunately, kept Stephen Huszar, whose steadiness benefitted this cast, immensely, and led to a pleasantly rewarding watch....

Full marks to Hallmark for the originality in their 2023 Christmas movies.

Stephen Huszar bounces back after his uneven performance in 'A Royal Christmas Crush', playing a lighthouse owner named Peter who rents his property out to guests who, aside from sleeping there, get to help carry out the duties of the lighthouse.

That's where Melanie (Chelsea Hobbs) goes with her son Jason (Everett Andres) when her ex-husband cancels his Christmas plans with Jason at the very last minute. I bet you can guess what happens between Melanie and Peter...

Some of the old Hallmark Christmas tropes appear, but even those scenes are refreshing.

I enjoyed the mother-son relationship between Melanie and Jason and the way Jason bonded with Huszar's Peter.

As a true Pacific Northwest native, I really appreciated that in the stock footage at the beginning they actually included a true Seattle Christmas icon...the beautiful Bon Marché Star. Having said that, I do not know where in Canada this was filmed, but the lighthouse was beautiful. I understand it is Canada's oldest lighthouse on the west coast and not too far from where I grew up on Fidalgo Island. Cool!

I liked the concept of guests being able to stay in a working lighthouse and being given responsibilities tied to the lighthouse.

The whole recently divorced storyline I could have done without...especially since the writers at times acted like it had been years since they had spent Christmas together, but they have only been divorced for a year and at the most the son could have only spent one Christmas with his dad...except since he dad had an affair and is still with the woman expecting a baby, that math doesn't really add up either.

If you take out that sad sack story and poor math, the finding a town into Christmas and a male role model I appreciated. Saving the light house I appreciated.

Like several other stories this year and last, I felt like they tried to add too much in. Sometimes keeping a story simple just works. A Christmas Carol, for example, is a simple story...and it works. Based on that, this is not really a recommendation from me...except to anyone wanting to see the Fisgard Lighthouse.