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Hallmark Channel made up for Christmas on Duty — which really should have been a Sunday night movie — with the charming star-crossed holiday romance, A Newport Christmas … a lackluster title but don’t be fooled, this one is a real charmer with wonderful leads and a truly emotional story.
A Newport Christmas begins in 1905 as a young, upper-crust woman, Ella, goes about the town of Newport, spreading her own brand of Christmas joy to the less fortunate as she heads to her family estate to prepare for their very first Christmas ball, which she is spearheading. As preparations are underway, Ella’s father asks for a moment of her time because he has big news. At the ball, there will be the announcement of an engagement … hers. Except she’s not currently seeing anyone, but her father has arranged that she will marry a man whom neither of them has ever met. She’s less than thrilled because she was about to tell her father that she was planning to forgo marriage to start a charity to help the people of Newport. She never gets to deliver her news as his news has put her in a tizzy and she needs to clear her head. She boards her personal sailboat and sails off as dusk is approaching, and while out in the open water she sees a bright comet in the sky. Making a wish that she would find true love, she turns and out of nowhere there is a man in her boat. Or is it his boat that she’s in? And what is he wearing, because he is not dressed like a turn of the century gentleman. She demands to be taken back to the dock at Newport, but when they arrive she does not recognize anything. The man, Nick, assures her this is Newport, Rhode Island, and as they take to the land, Ella is baffled by what she sees, and is even more puzzled by Nick telling her this is the year two thousand and twenty-five. As he tells her what advancements they’ve made in the past 120 years, including inflatable snowmen (the sight of which causes her to faint), she wants to go to her home … except when she gets there it’s a museum. Nick is still confused as to who Ella is — is she an escaped patient who believes she’s Ella — and Nick’s boss and co-worker, Christine and Francis, are stunned by the resemblance she bears to the portrait of the real Ella, and by how much knowledge she has about the house right down to a secret compartment behind a painting in Ella’s bedroom which holds Ella’s diary. But they have her diary on display, however the diary Ella produces ends on the night she disappeared in 1905. Speaking of disappearing, the likeness of Ella on the portrait has also vanished, leaving just the background. It’s becoming very clear that this is the real Ella and if they don’t find a way to get her back to 1905, everything she accomplished in her lifetime, including the charity which is still in operation today, will also vanish as if it had never existed.
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There’s also another complication — Ella and Nick are developing feelings for each other, but he knows she has to return to her own time or Newport will be affected forever. The only hope they have is to figure out who it was she married, a man named Rex, except there is zero record of him in any of the history books. Nick does some research on the comet Ella remembered seeing, and he learns that it appears around Christmas (it’s known as the Christmas Comet) every twenty years and they have just a few days before it is due to appear again. Apparently its appearance has some kind of magical effect on various bodies of water, so when Ella made her wish to find true love it transported her to 2025. Now they have to figure out the exact coordinates of where she needs to be when the comet reappears on Christmas Eve. Going through some old books, Ella recognizes a man she had seen on the street who kept giving her the eye, and when she showed it to Nick he felt the man looked exactly like the man who sold him the boat, a man named Adam. Turns out it is the same man Ella saw in town and … his name is not Adam, it’s Rex. He was sent to find her in 1905 and saw the same comet but being at a different coordinate, he was transported to 2005, so he’s been in Newport for twenty years, and he’s not planning on going back to a life in 1905 where he had nothing. In fact, he’s now got a fiancee but he is willing to help Nick get Ella back to 1905 before more things disappear. But is Ella willing to go even though her life’s work will be erased, and will Nick be able to let her go while his heart breaks in a million pieces?
If you’re a fan of time travel romances, especially if they’re set during the holidays, then A Newport Christmas is highly recommended. It’s always tricky to write a time travel story without fudging things to make it work, but writer Joie Botkin has really covered all of her bases to make everything in the story feel plausible … as plausible as a story about a lovelorn time traveler can be. Having the character of Francis, the sci-fi buff, know the rules of time travel and the conundrums it poses (like Jamie Kennedy’s horror movie fan character in Scream), he can easily explain what will happen the longer Ella stays in the present, and we see those things happening, from the vanishing image on the portrait to a Christmas tree that disappears right in the middle of the ball (Ella has been gone long enough now for her charity to no longer exist). All of these fantastical elements are handled so well as to not be off-putting to anyone not into science fiction, keeping things in the vein of the recent Providence Falls series or the Outlander TV series. Director Dustin Rikert does a great job navigating the story between Ella and Nick, always keeping us on edge as to how it will work out in the end (Botkin has written a truly original and very emotional ending to the story making us fear all the way to Ella’s return to 1905 that she has truly left Nick behind), as well as the budding romance between Christine and Francis. There is also the nice use of actress Paige Cummings playing a pivotal character in the present and the character’s great-grandmother whom Ella knew in 1905. The story also makes great use of notes written in the past to help guide those in the present, helping the viewer put the puzzles of the story together so that each reveal comes as a genuine surprise. I have to be honest and admit that I was completely and emotionally involved in the story, and I was holding back some tears many times as the movie was coming to what was certain to be a tragic end to the love story (even though it had to have a happy ending, but there was doubt in my mind). The production value here is pretty spectacular, even if there is some janky green screen moments at the dock that might take you out of the moment, it’s not bad enough to ruin the movie.
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A Newport Christmas really succeeds in its casting. Ginna Claire Mason is perfection as Ella, in both the past and present. Her Ella is an atypical woman of her era, strong-willed and a real go-getter who has grand plans that are almost unheard of for a woman at the turn of the century. She brings all of that determination to the present, showing that perhaps Ella was always ahead of her time and she’s found her place 120 years later. She brings a lot of humor to the role as Ella tries to sneak in some ‘spoilers’ about her life after the moment she disappeared, but that becomes harder and harder to find once records of her existence after that night begin to disappear as well. Mason brings a lot of emotion to the role as Ella is torn between wanting to go back and fulfill her destiny while wanting to stay where she feels she belongs now that she has actually found her soul mate. It’s a lovely performance that perfectly balances some of the absurdities of a time travel story, never making Ella a complete fish out of water always perplexed by the present. Mason just makes Ella’s situation feel totally normal and realistic. Matching her is Wes Brown as Nick. Brown is an actor who can pull off comedy and drama, and here he gets to mix the two. While his role as Nick leans more to the dramatic and romantic side, he still gets to do what he does so well when he delivers a funny line under his breath as an aside to whatever point he’s trying to make. He just makes that feel so natural. He also pours his heart out as he has to accept that Ella has to return to 1905, his emotions bubbling over because he too has found someone, the person he’s always been waiting for and now she has to return to a completely different era. The chemistry between Brown and Mason just crackles, and each actor makes the viewers feel that their hearts are truly shattering as they say their goodbyes. Excellent work from them both.
Mason and Brown are also given able support from Talia Robinson as Christine and Evan Alexander Smith as Francis, both of whom totally believe Ella’s story and are working to find a solution to the problem before everything they know and love disappears. The two also have a fun little ‘flirt-mance’ going, which Ella can clearly see and tries to facilitate into something more concrete, and when they finally decide to pursue what has always been there between them, their slight awkwardness in the moment just puts a smile on your face from ear-to-ear. David O’Donnell is really good as Adam, and when he reveals he is truly Rex and explains his situation, he also makes it feel totally authentic. When Ella and Nick insist he has to return to marry Ella, he delivers a nicely written line about how could he possibly return to 1905 after being missing for seven days but looking twenty years older? It’s a nice performance in what is also a pivotal role. Regina Schneider as Sadie and Joseph Dellger as Albert also do some good work in the 1905 scenes as well, despite their brevity.
After the major disappointment of Christmas on Duty, A Newport Christmas is a delightful breath of fresh air, a totally charming romance with fantastical elements that the writer, director and cast all manage to make feel completely authentic. Ginna Claire Mason and Wes Brown bring some wonderful warmth, humor and chemistry to their roles as Ella and Nick, and they are surrounded by a supporting cast that helps make this world feel completely lived in and believable. The story is fun, dramatic and emotional, and it has a lovely holiday feel to it, making this one of Hallmark’s best holiday romances so far.
A Newport Christmas has a run time of 1 hour 23 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview – A Newport Christmas
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Listen to It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Dean Martin featured in A Newport Christmas