The Christmas Charade
Reviewed by L. Sue
The trailer for this movie is Christmas meets the FBI, and
if you know me, you know I love me some spycraft mixed in with Jingle Bells. Whitney,
a school librarian who always plays it safe, is looking for a little adventure.
She starts her day by watching a spy show before heading to work. Kudos to her
for waking up early enough to enjoy some TV—making me feel a bit better about
choosing sleep over morning exercise or watching movies.
Whitney’s best friend convinces her to go on a blind date
with "mark_loves_cats_1922," even personally vouching for him IRL.
Despite some initial hesitation and even tossing the address into the trash,
Whitney realizes she needs some excitement in her life and decides this date
could be the perfect opportunity. She agrees to meet Mark at a restaurant—he’ll
be the one wearing a green sweater. Plus, she’s slightly guilted into this as
her parents want to set her up with some ophthalmologist. But before she counts
Mark out, let's hear some details about this mystery man!
Picture this- It’s Christmas in a crowded restaurant, and
nearly every guy is wearing a green sweater. Whitney mistakes Agent Josh Dawson
for Mark and is confused when he starts asking questions about whether she read
"the profile." Whitney is thinking of a dating profile, while Josh is
thinking of a criminal rap sheet.
Josh, being a detective, soon realizes that Whitney isn’t
the agent he was supposed to meet for a double date with the potential perp.
Just as this realization dawns, the perp, Lou, and his wife, Patty, walk in.
Whitney tries to leave, but Agent Dawson stops her, saying that leaving now
would be extremely suspicious to Lou and Patty. It's just lunch, Dawson assures
her, and after this, she can move on.
Whitney signed up for a small adventure, not dining with
criminals! However, her need to do the right thing and a secret desire to catch
the bad guy get her through the lunch. She babbles when nervous but makes
enough of a good impression on Patty that she’s asked to help plan the big
Mistletoe Ball on Christmas Eve.
Whitney wants to say no, and Agent Dawson wants her to
refuse, but the big FBI boss greenlights this mission as it’s the closest the
Bureau has gotten to Lou. It’s a great excuse to be near the object to be
stolen—The Heart of Christmas, a necklace given to a German princess in the
1800s by an American industrialist heir.
Despite being a novice, Whitney proves to be a better
undercover agent than Josh in some ways. She gets the perp to open up and is
invited to help plan the big event. While Josh, a good agent cut from the lone
wolf cloth, doesn’t always play well with others, Whitney listens to Patty and
Lou, gaining their trust and in turn some valuable information.
At Lou and Patty’s home, Whitney and Patty are discussing
the plans for the ball while Lou and "Johnnie" talk about a big
potential investment. Patty lets it slip to Whitney that she hasn’t seen the
necklace herself, but knows it’s stored in a secure vault and travels with its
own security team. This is more intel than Josh manages to get out of Lou.
Whitney scores a second victory while at the museum venue
for the ball. She notices a painting, and the museum guide reveals it’s a fake.
This gives our adventure-seeking Whitney an idea: why not switch the real
necklace with a fake one and then track it?
Josh, despite being a good agent, seems to be contributing
little more than a badge to this operation and agrees to Whitney’s plan, having
no better idea himself. They set off to get a fake necklace, crafted by Mrs.
Claus herself. She wisely doesn’t ask too many questions about making costume
jewelry from a crime scene photo, suggesting her Christmas store might be a
front for a more lucrative business—albeit not completely “legit”.
Armed with the fake necklace, they set off to infiltrate the
secure warehouse. Agent Dawson is clad in the FBI-mandated all-black attire,
while Whitney sports an ugly Christmas sweater—probably an FBI first, and she's
wearing it unironically.
During the vent-crawling scene, Whitney declares "Die
Hard" the best Christmas movie. Feel free to weigh in, dear readers, if
you agree or disagree. After all the planning and the use of gingerbread men to
distract the guards (how hard was that gingerbread cookie that several guards didn't
notice Whitney climbing down a rope?) Josh and Whitney make a dramatic getaway,
swinging from building to building on a rope, all without gloves.
After all that Mission Impossibling they still don’t have
the necklace. Whitney was close to grabbing it, but Josh pulled the plug as
something didn’t feel right. To top it off, now Whitney and Josh have to spend
December 23 with her parents because Whitney's best friend saw them at the
Christmas/Jewelry shop and told her parents that Whitney has a boyfriend.
Josh and Whitney play holiday-themed Charades with her
parents. Kudos to the movie for incorporating Charades in multiple ways! Her
parents suspect that Whitney isn’t telling them everything, but they also
realize that Josh is a decent person who genuinely cares for their daughter.
Despite facing off with countless menacing criminals and dangerous in the field
action, Josh was most nervous about this simple meeting of the
parents—something he “just doesn’t do.” We are starting to feel bad for lone
wolf Agent Dawson.
Fast forward to December 24, the day of the big ball, and
it’s all come down to this: Whitney and Josh need to swap the necklace before
it goes back to the vault and/or is stolen. Patty ropes Whitney into a tango,
which she can actually do because she’s a former dancer, and she tells Josh to
follow her lead. While they are dancing the tango, the necklace is stolen from
Whitney’s purse. Oh no! What are they going to do?
As insurance, the baddies also grab Whitney’s parents—who
snagged an invite after the Charades because “there too many unanswered
questions from game night”—as hostages. Away the necklace and Whitney’s parents
go in a black unmarked van. But there’s no need to panic. It turns out
Whitney’s parents are former FBI agents, who now run their own home security
company. They managed to subdue the kidnappers and, surprise—they were the ones
who took the necklace once they realized what Whitney and Josh were up to.
Unlike in other movies, everyone here seems to be in the
know—all except poor Whitney. And that’s the big twist in this movie: she feels
betrayed, having been lied to by her parents her whole life, stifling her into
making safe choices and not living life on her terms. Josh also gets some
blame, as Whitney takes his frequent offers for her to back out as a sign he
doesn’t believe she can do it. In reality, he was just looking out for her,
realizing that this adventure was perhaps more than she had signed up for.
The henchmen and the museum director (the inside man) are
led away for some serious interrogation. Meanwhile, Whitney heads directly to
Patty’s house, realizing it was Patty behind all the robberies. There was a
common theme among all the objects stolen—love. And no one loves love more than
Patty! The necklace and the painting were just the latest additions to her
growing collection. With the real perpetrator arrested, Whitney and Agent
Dawson are free to sleigh off into the Christmas night. Yippee-ki-yay!
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