A Timeless Christmas: Hallmark’s Kate and Leopold

Another day, another Hallmark Christmas movie! And who knows? There may be many more where this comes from!

I love myself a good time travel story (and one day, I’ll binge watch the rest of Outlander). But it’s almost always the woman going back in time, which kinda sucks for her. So it’s nice when someone travels forward in time as well. And that’s what this movie does!

Time to step out of time and into SPOILERS!

We open in 1903 where inventor and businessman Charles Whitley (Ryan Paevey) buys a special clock at an auction. He brings it home, hoping to polish it and give it to his fiancée Eliza (Cecilia Grace Deacon) as a Christmas gift. But he and Eliza get into a fight about going to a party for Christmas. He doesn’t see the point in socializing and would rather just stay home working. Eliza, though, wants to spend time with him and her family. She leaves, upset, and he’s annoyed.

Later, his faithful housekeeper Rosie (Anne Marie DeLuise), tries to talk some sense into him. She tells him he needs to do things that Eliza likes because they make her happy. That gives him something to think about as he fixes the clock he got at auction. Rosie reads an inscription that talks about winding the clock during the Christmas moon and how it would bring the person true love. Charles winds the clock and sets it aside but is overcome as the screen goes weird and passes out.

When he awakes, he finds the room has changed. Most of it appears to be in glass and labeled – much like a museum. He calls for Rosie and his butler Fredericks but neither respond so he goes looking for them.

We then realize he is in the present, except in a reality where there is no pandemic. Megan Turner (Erin Cahill) is dressed like Rosie and is playing her in Charles’ house, which is now a living museum. She and several actors, including Amber (Brandi Alexander) as Eliza and Dan (Zahf Paroo) as Fredericks, pretend the modern guests have stepped back in time to visit for Christmas. Unfortunately, Charles isn’t at home they say and Megan goes on to explain that in only a few days, Charles would disappear before Christmas and never be heard from again.

(Megan, Amber and Dan)

I think we know what happened to him.

Especially when he appears at the top of the stairs, demanding to know what everyone is doing in his house. Megan is confused but tries to get him to play along, assuming he’s another actor. Apparently they were supposed to have someone play Charles but the original actor quit or got cast in something. Either way, he was not available. But Charles is still very confused and threatens to have everyone arrested so Amber ushers them away to the gift shop.

Megan and her creative director, Kenny Kwon (Nelson Wong), try to figure out who Charles is – though they remain convinced he’s just a really committed actor. He keeps demanding that everyone get out of his house before acting confused about the cars in his driveway. They manage to get him away from the crowds as they try to convince him to stick to the script.

Good luck.

But then Kenny learns that the agency hasn’t yet sent over a new actor, so this Charles appears to be a trespasser. As they end the tours, he decides to call the sheriff while Amber and Dan, who are a couple, debate whether they want to continue being actors as their careers seem to be going nowhere. Megan, meanwhile, investigates the house and realizes that she solved the mystery of what happened to Charles.

He traveled to 2020.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff (Dean Redman) has taken Charles down for questioning and they aren’t getting too far. Megan shows up and convinces the Sheriff that he’s just a really method actor who is really named Charles. Charles agrees to go along with it and Megan takes him back to his house.

She explains that he’s traveled to the future but that no one would really believe he is who he says he is. Charles agrees to keep playing along with the charade until they can find a way to send him back, even though history does say he never goes back.

But this is a Hallmark Christmas movies, so paradoxes don’t really play a part in it.

Megan introduces him to modern food and he enjoys it. He tries to pay for her but realizes he doesn’t have any money. So Charles agrees to play himself for Christmas in order to at least earn some money while he is in 2020. She takes him back to his house and lets him stay there for now.

And so Charles joins the daily shows at the house. He and Megan tend to have a good banter and soon they become the most popular part of the tour. Attendance shoots up and the museum does very well as people stream into the house to witness Christmas in Charles’ house.

After Charles gets his first pay, he offers to treat Megan for pizza. She accepts and she takes him shopping during their down time, including getting him some modern clothes. They end up running into Megan’s parents, Greg (Micahel St. John Smith) and Sharon (Karen Kruper), and they seem taken with Charles.

It’s during this conversation that Charles learns Megan is a descendant of Rosie, which is why she works at the museum. However, she’s up for a teaching position at the local university and hopes she gets it – education is a family profession. She also admits that she’s studied his life and even did her thesis on him. He asks if she knows what happened to Eliza and she says she doesn’t but it’s clear she is lying. As they shop, Megan eyes a beautiful snowflake necklace before moving on. Charles asks her about her love life and she reveals she had broken up with someone recently. And it doesn’t sound like it was a good break up. He decides not to press and they continue.

As they walk around town, Charles is dismayed to see that his factory is gone. He asks what happened to it and Megan says that he had no will or any written instructions on what should happen to his business. So it was taken over by the state and ultimately closed. Most of his employees moved on to work with his nemesis, which sends Charles ranting. He’s clearly upset and so Megan takes him home.

Over the next few days, they grow closer together and really start to bond. They also continue to research ways to send Charles home. He remembers the clock and so they start searching the house for it, even asking Kenny if he recalls a Christmas clock. Kenny searches his records but can’t find anything about a Christmas clock. And if it was in the house, he had catalogued it. Megan assures Charles they won’t give up looking for it.

She invites him to her parents’ house for a pre-Christmas celebration and he gets to meet her entire family. They welcome him in and he fits in pretty well, even trying his hand at their annual tradition of trying to put the star on top the big tree outside. Winner gets to pick the charity the family donates to. He doesn’t succeed but has fun doing it.

(Megan and Charles)

Inside, they look through some family pictures and he sees some shots of Rosie. He realizes that she looks like she’s at a wedding and that’s how he learns that Eliza married his enemy. They tell him that Rosie worked for Eliza for years but he’s angry both at the fact that Eliza married his nemesis and that Megan knew but didn’t tell him about it. He excuses himself and thanks her family for their hospitality before leaving, Megan following him. She tries to apologize but he’s too angry and needs some time to himself.

Charles walks around town and comes across a man in the park. He tells Charles all about the good works his nemesis ended up doing after Charles disappeared. It seems he and Eliza worked hard and donated a lot of money to improve the lives of the people in the town, including dedicating a park and building a school. It gives Charles a lot to think about and he wanders into a diner where he meets up with Dan, who is worried that he and Amber may never achieve their dreams. Charles gives him a pep talk and reminds him about what is important before contemplating everything he just learned.

The next day, Megan is not sure that Charles will show up for the show. But he surprises her and is there. He apologizes to her when they have a moment and she apologizes as well. They decide to move forward and continue trying to find the clock.

Megan has an interview to become a professor at the local university. She goes and as she walks around the lobby, she finds some artifacts on display that were donated by Eliza and her husband. One of them is the Christmas Clock. She asks the administrative assistant about it and then asks if she can have a favor.

Charles enters the library after a tour and finds the clock on his desk. Megan tells him she found it and that now he can go home. He doesn’t seem pretty thrilled about the possibility and agrees to stay for the annual Christmas party. Charles also promises to say goodbye to Megan before he leaves.

Christmas Eve arrives and the party starts at the house. Charles and Brandi-as-Eliza open the party with a speech and then a dance. Megan has come to realize how important he is to her but has resigned herself to believing he will be heading back. However, she has made a decision regarding her own happiness and tells her parents that she did not accept the teaching position. She wants to stay at the museum and believes she can do great work as its director. They support her and just want her to be happy.

Megan goes searching for Charles but can’t find him. She spots the Christmas clock and figures he left, though she’s disappointed he didn’t say goodbye. However he appears behind her and reveals that he has no intentions of going back. Everyone seemed to be fine without him and the town prospered. It seems his future is not in 1903 but in 2020…with Megan.

Phew! The time stream is safe!

Charles and Megan return to the party. They share a dance as Brandi and Dan give them good news – they booked a touring production of Taming of the Shrew for the New Year. Megan and Charles congratulate them. Charles says he’ll need to get a job and wonders how he could improve the technology of today. Megan asks him if he’s always looking to the future and he says that it’s no longer just his future but theirs, if she’ll have him. She tells him to slow down and so he asks her to spend New Year’s with him. The movie ends with them sharing a kiss.

(Happy ending!)

I love plots where someone travels forward from time. I know most people like to send characters back in time but it’s often women going back to a time where they are considered property in the eyes of the law and can’t be their own people. Why would you want to do that?

I know I wouldn’t.

So I enjoyed the movie. The ending was a bit predictable – after all, Charles never returned to 1903 so it was clear that he would not go back. But it was nice to see his journey to that moment anyway.

I enjoyed Paevy’s and Cahill’s chemistry together and loved watching them together. I hope we get to see them together again.

Enjoy some cookies and relax under a warm blanket and enjoy this movie when you can.