Hallmark Channel
Talk about your ‘Winter Escape’. Hallmark’s frosty season themed movies are taking viewers around the world, and this second movie in the series travels to the literal bottom of the planet — Antarctica — for a movie that’s more adventure than romance but there are actually four romances brewing (five if you count one female character who seems to have eyes for two different men).
Polar Opposites stars Rhiannon Fish as Emma, a court illustrator (who wants to be a more artistic illustrator) who has given up on dating. Her father is doing research in Antarctica, and she gets a call from him that sounds like he’s having an emergency, but she can’t tell for sure since the signal keeps breaking up before the phone goes dead. What’s a daughter to do but get herself from New York to Antarctica in 24 hours to make sure her dad is okay? It seems he’s also known to have chest pains so that adds to her fear that he’s lost somewhere in the ice and snow since not even the woman who runs the base camp can reach him (but he’s known to disappear for days at a time, so he must be fine, don’t worry). Emma somehow gets from NYC to Argentina where she attempts to board a cruise ship heading to the Antarctic … except you need special permits to travel to the continent (it’s true, you do!) and those could take weeks or months to be approved. It just so happens that a scientific group is also sailing on the cruise ship for convenient plot reasons, and Emma distracts the leader of the group, Andy (Markian Tarasiuk), long enough for her to sneak on board while trying to avoid Ingrid (Raissa Xavier), the cruise director who refused her attempt to board in the first place.
Bumping into Andy again while grabbing some food from the buffet, he brings her to his cabin knowing full well that they could both be in serious trouble if anyone discovers she is aboard the ship. But cabin fever gets the best of her and she poses as a member of the crew, but Ingrid hears her quacking ring tone and knows there is a stowaway, so she and her assistant Martin (Michel Hersch) do what they can to find her while Andy runs interference. When the ship arrives at its destination, Emma again manages to sneak past Ingrid and Martin and sets foot on the continent and heads for the base where she finds Peg (Maeve Quinlan), who tries to assure her that her father Ian (Dean McDermott) is just fine … even though she can’t make contact with him. Peg also agrees to keep Emma’s presence on the continent on the down low, and Andy insists on traveling with her to find her father because she’s never set foot on Antarctica and doesn’t understand the dangers that await her (storms, crevasses). Find him they do, fit as a fiddle so what was the emergency? A lovelorn penguin stuck on a small iceberg that had broken off the ice shelf, unable to swim back because of a pod of killer whales, unable to reach her mate standing on the other side calling for her. (Why he felt it necessary to call his daughter with this information is unclear.) Ian has managed to secure the iceberg with tethers (also unclear how he accomplished this) but they will fail eventually so they need an engineer to help bring the penguin home. (They can’t just pull on the tethers or the iceberg will roll, sending the hapless penguin into the water.) Luckily Andy is an engineer, but can they all work together to save the penguin and avoid Ingrid and Martin without causing an international incident?
Hallmark Channel
Hallmark is really going all out for these ‘Winter Escape’ movies, with the first one filmed in Ireland and this one filmed in the Antarctic … well, actually it was filmed mostly in Argentina and Peru (port scenes filmed in Brazil and stock footage of Antarctica utilized for some shots). The production team did a really nice job of making it seem like the actors were actually on the continent, but there are a few dodgy green screen shots that blow the illusion (the SPFX team needed to use the green spill removal tool in a couple of the more obvious green screen shots). It also appears they shot on a real ship as well which makes it feel all the more authentic. Points are also scored for hiring local actors for the ship’s crew (which also has some drawbacks). Overall, the production itself really does help sell the notion that this story is taking place in Antarctica, but perhaps viewers mired in the middle of winter would like to travel to some warmer climes.
The story itself is a little convoluted. Emma keeps going on about her father’s chest pains but what exactly is she planning to do when she finds him? She’s not a scientist, she’s not a doctor, she’s a court illustrator. She has no experience that makes her qualified to roam around Antarctica looking for her father. Luckily Rhiannon Fish makes Emma totally endearing so we want to see her succeed (even if she is breaking the law). She also manages to just subtly show her attraction to Andy, while also not throwing herself at him because it’s clear Ingrid has the hots for him too. She really gives a natural and winning performance. Her co-star Markian Tarasiuk is also very good as Andy. He makes Andy a noble gentleman willing to put his own career at risk to protect Emma, obviously attracted to her as they spend more time together, casually brushing off her suggestions that Ingrid would be a good woman for him without blatantly saying he’s falling for her. Fish and Tarasiuk have some good chemistry and make a really cute couple.
Dean McDermott is better than expected as Ian, totally devoted to his penguins but also very warm and caring towards Emma. He also has good chemistry with Maeve Quinlan (Peg) and it’s obvious those two have some kind of romantic feelings toward each other. Raissa Xavier’s Ingrid could have been a total villain, stalking Emma all over the ship and Antarctica, but she’s more of a comic villain as Emma always slips through her clutches. She does give a nice performance but her one drawback is that she sometimes seems to struggle with the English dialogue and her thick accent often makes her lines a bit hard to understand. Still, she brings a sense of fun to the role so that the audience doesn’t hate her. Michel Hersch is also enjoyable as Martin, Ingrid’s loyal subordinate and other object of her affection (even though she doesn’t seem to pick up his signals that he is totally in love with her). He has a funny scene when he’s interrogating Andy about Emma, and he provides good support for Xavier (and his accent is a little easier to understand). All in all, the movie has a really great cast of actors to make this really far-fetched story work. Of course, the penguins also play a large part in engaging the audience and there is a wonderful payoff in the end.
While it may be a very frigid winter, at least in the Eastern part of the country, the love stories both human and penguin are sure to warm your heart.
Polar Opposites has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview – Polar Opposites
Hallmark Channel
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