A Timeless Christmas (2020 TV Movie) User Reviews

Magical, Romantic Christmas film delightfully filled with old fashioned manners.

[cgvsluis · 8/10 · 26 October 2021]

This was a beautiful Christmas film by Hallmark. The premise is about a wealthy business man who disappears a week before Christmas one hundred and fifty years ago and wakes up at his desk in contemporary times. His home has been turned in to a museum, his factory torn down, his fiancé married having married his rival who became great benefactors to the town, and his maid-Rosie's great granddaughter running the museum that is his house offering tours.

Rosie's granddaughter, Megan, initially doesn't believe that he is who he says he is...although the resemblance to the painted portrait in the front hall is striking. Could he be Charles Whitley? Megan actually did her college thesis on Charles Whitley, so no one knows more about him than her. When she notices the horseshoe shaped scar on his hand and Charles is able to direct her to a secret compartment under the floorboards...Megan becomes a believer. Megan decides to help Charles get back to his time.

Together they piece together the events of his last night, he was repairing a Christmas clock for his fiancé and he winds it on the second full moon in December, called the Christmas moon. Megan finds the clock and they are ready for the next Christmas moon. Meanwhile, Megan shares with Charles all of the Christmas traditions that he was always to busy to participate in...and learns that he was afraid to get close to anyone afraid he might loose them. During the process Charles learns what he has been missing and starts to fall in love with Megan. Will he return to his time in the end?

Will Megan leave the museum and become a history professor at the local college?

Ryan Paevey was wonderful in this film...as was Erin Cahill playing our two leads. They had wonderful chemistry and really made these characters come to life. It was a magical story, just what Christmas is all about.

I loved the emphasis on old fashioned manners...something really lacking in today's day and age. It just went to show how good manners are always appreciated and never go out of style!

Romantic, magical and filled with love and Christmas. Loved the film and think that if you are a fan of Hallmark that you will love it too.

Something different this Christmas season from Hallmark...

[toddsgraham · 8/10 · 20 November 2020]

I really enjoyed this Christmas movie. The time travel storyline along with some quality acting made this one (which is my 15th) my favorite thus far this 2020 Hallmark Christmas movie season. The script was pretty good too. Some nice heartwarming dialogue, which I liked (Charles Whitley speech, e.g., at the Christmas party). The acting was good. Erin Cahill had a strong performance; I have always thought she performed well in such roles. Ryan Paevey, the other lead, also had a good performance on the screen. And the chemistry between the two was fairly good, though I think we could have gotten a bit more from the male lead (Ryan) here. The props, dress, scenery and sets were beautiful. It was well done. I also enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere and feel of the movie, which is one of the things I like about Hallmark films. Overall, a very good Christmas movie by Hallmark this year. It is worth a watch.

A Touch Of Sci-Fi

[atlasmb · 8/10 · 16 November 2020]

Kudos to Hallmark for reaching beyond the usual holiday-romance formula and adding an element of science fiction. This film includes time travel and the dialogue even mentions H.G. Wells' classic "The Time Machine".

Industrialist Charles Whitley (Ryan Paevey) awakens one morning to find he has been transported more than a century into the future. He meets a beautiful twenty-first century woman, Megan Turner (Erin Cahill), who decides to help him return to his own time.

The first part of this story is very similar to "Time After Time", which is an excellent film from 1979 (not to be confused with "Somewhere in Time").

The two leads are excellent in their roles. Paevey is fairly convincing as the human anachronism, balancing mild bewilderment with romantic interest.

A beautiful look at the future/now

[druatlax · 9/10 · 15 April 2022]

A different story for the Hallmark universe. The directing was nearly flawless.... The " family" feel of the cast as it seamlessly blended to tell a story both imagined and real. Paevey is lead and as should be, steals it , makes it believable with Cahill's support. Excellent, subtle, and totally interactive chemistry-between the two and the cast, and director himself make this movie real. Loved every bit of it... please more of this total package.

This Hallmark Christmas movie is quite good...

[paul_haakonsen · 7/10 · 11 December 2021]

In the spirit of the holiday season, I sat down to watch the 2020 Hallmark Christmas movie titled "A Timeless Christmas", believing it to going to be just another super cheesy and sappy romantic Christmas movie that Hallmark spews out by the dozens. And with Ryan Paevey on the cast list, I must admit that I definitely believed it was going to be one of those archetypical Hallmark movies.

But still, as I hadn't already seen "A Timeless Christmas" from writers Duane Poole and Ron Oliver, I sat down to watch it and give it a fair chance.

And I have to say that since December 1st, I have sat through more than twenty Christmas movies and "A Timeless Christmas" definitely ranks among the top three of most enjoyable and entertaining of Christmas movies thus far.

I really liked the storyline in "A Timeless Christmas", so writers Duane Poole and Ron Oliver definitely managed to put together a very wholesome and entertaining story.

They had cast some nice talents for the movie, and it was refreshing to see Ryan Paevey (playing Charles Whitley) to rise up and shed the mantle of a dime a dozen Hallmark Christmas movies, because he was so well-cast for this movie and carried the movie quite nicely along with his co-star Erin Cahill (playing Megan).

"A Timeless Christmas" was so much more than the archetypical romantic sap and cheese that Hallmark tends to push out there during the holiday seasons. And if you enjoy Christmas movies, then you must certainly should take the time to sit down and watch "A Timeless Christmas" from director Ron Oliver.

My rating of "A Timeless Christmas" lands on a well-deserved seven out of ten stars.

I really like this

[jrbusiness-64499 · 8/10 · 20 November 2020]

Time travelling and Christmas is a win win but add both these two main leads and a great supporting cast and you have a really good movie. I will watch it again

Very nice!

[shona_916 · 7/10 · 16 November 2020]

This was the best Hallmark Christmas movie this year so far! It was enjoyable watching this movie with great casting, acting, writing, makeup, costumes/wardrobe, location/scenery, production and direction. I feel like they had to move through the events too fast in the last 30 minutes or so. This movie should've been a two-parter primiering on Saturday and Sunday night this weekend. Applause to Hallmark :)

Not quite timeless, but still lovely

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 19 April 2022]

Nobody should watch Hallmark films with massively high expectations, their Christmas output particularly. If a Hallmark fan or wanting to see as many Christmas films as possible, expectations would understandably be higher. They are very formulaic with most of them being more of the same narratively and structurally, apart from sporadic attempts at changes of pace. There are a fair share of them though that are surprisingly above average and even good amidst the many average and less ones.

The 2020 output from Hallmark did vary in quality but was not near as bad or wildly uneven as it could have been. None of the films from the batch were really terrible, and a small handful of them were actually very good. 'A Timeless Christmas' is one of the very good ones and benefits from having the most unique premise in a while for a Hallmark Christmas film and the performances. 'A Timeless Christmas' is a fine example of why Hallmark's Christmas output or even Hallmark in general should not be immediately scorned at.

Did find the final third a little too on the rushed side from trying to cram in a little too much with not enough time to explore it properly.

Have often found the music for Hallmark films over-used and in need of a toning down tonally too. There are pleasant moments here and there is some authentic atmosphere, but part of me did think it still could have been used less in placement and been more understated.

On the other hand, a lot is done very well indeed. Erin Cahill is heartfelt and charming, Hallmark do not always score when it comes to having female lead characters that are likeable, but they score here. She has a pleasing and hard to dislike chemistry with Ryan Paevey, equally appealing, and for me their romantic pairing was more rootable than most Hallmark romantic pairings. The supporting cast do more than solidly too.

There are some lovely locations here, complemented very well by the photography, and some pleasant moments in the soundtrack. The script is light-hearted without being too frothy and is not as cornball or as soapy as other Hallmark Christmas films. The story deserves a lot of credit for doing something different, a word usually not associated in the same sentence with Hallmark, and is a lot more creative than most Hallmark films. Concept-wise and its execution 'A Timeless Christmas' is to me in the top 5 of the most creative when it comes to Hallmark Christmas films, and is the most unique. It is not as formulaic and there is less of the Hallmark cliches. The story is also very charming and heart-warming and the time travel element is not wasted, avoiding convolution too.

Concluding, surprisingly very good which was not expected. 8/10.

'Kate & Leopold' at Christmas

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 14 December 2021]

Sometimes, television shamelessly copies Hollywood. If that gets under your skin, there are a few of the movies you'll want to stay away from, like A Timeless Christmas - which is total copy of Kate & Leopold. Those of you who don't mind and want to see a repeat of the highly romantic Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan movie, during a Christmas setting, will love it.

From the turn of the century (no, kids, not 2000), comes a man who has a passion for the future and futuristic inventions. He's reluctant to get married, even though it's his duty, and through a magical clock, he gets transported 117 years in the future. Just stop counting the similarities now; your hand will get a cramp.

He's reunited with his family home but is puzzled and disturbed to find it is now a tourist attraction. The woman who heads the tours is modern, independent, career-driven, and she doesn't believe he's from the past. Seriously, folks - stop listing all the copies from Kate & Leopold and just enjoy the Hallmark. With some familiar Hallmark faces, like Erin Cahill, Ryan Paevey, Brandi Alexander, and Zahf Paroo, you'll be in for an entertaining flick. Especially if you've never seen the Hugh Jackman version.

Different kind of movie for Hallmark

[jonathanrspalding · 9/10 · 16 November 2020]

I want to congratulate Hallmark on this one. They have too many movies that are exactly the same. The time travel twist makes it unique. Ryan Peavey played the character so well. It was something different and fun. I was even in suspense at the end.

Ok movie if you don't think too much

[tles7 · 6/10 · 29 December 2020]

Traveling forward in time, it is strange that the character isn't overwhelmed with this unfamiliar environment. It is really like going to another planet for him. Literally, 80% of the language used in this film by the women he meets would not be understandable to him at all-too colloquial. He is just too quickly comfortable with the surroundings that are way too different then the era he comes from. He also looks like someone that has walked out of a GQ magazine of 2020 rather than someone who came from 1903. It tries to be a romantic movie, but gets bogged down by the lack of charisma and ignores some great possibilities to make the film more special. The movie will be hard to please a thinking person.

Way too many loose ends.

[savethewatchmaker · 3/10 · 17 November 2020]

I had high expectations for this movie considering it has all the elements for a winner: time travel, Christmas magic, and a charming mansion. How all these golden ingredients ended up creating such a disappointing movie is beyond me. Even casting aside all the historical inaccuracies, there were still so many glaring issues with this movie. Putting aside Hallmark's typical problems (no chemistry between the leads, for instance), there are still lots of points that stood out:

1) I wasn't sure if this was the script's problem or Ryan Paevey's performance of unwitting time traveler Charles Whitley, but Charles takes to the future shockingly well. After yelling at some of the tourists in his house to leave, he needs very little time to catch up to what's happening and how he needs to behave himself. I couldn't help but compare this movie to Journey Back to Christmas, in which Candace Cameron Bure also time travels from the past, but in contrast, she plays the role much more organically, with appropriate amounts of upset confusion, surprise, and unease. His lack of knowledge of future technology lends itself to a chuckle or two, but all in all, he takes to his new life way too fast.

2) How on earth did someone approve a plot point that focused on a Blue Moon happening on the 18th of a month? It's easy to turn a blind eye to a few slip-ups with historical fashion or dialogue, but this two full moons happening in a month, one of them in the middle of it, is just absurd.

3) I still can't quite wrap my head around how unsatisfying the ending was. I fully expected Charles to use the clock to travel back in time and fix the wrongs he, from the vantage point of the future, realized he needed to do differently, before inevitably returning to "his true love" in the future. At the very least, he could've ended his engagement on better terms (he lamented the fact that his last interaction with his fiance before going missing was an argument), given her his blessing to move on, patched things up (to a believable degree) with his rival, and at least ensure that his riches would be spent in a way that he would approve of. All of the above loose ends are brought up as the movie progresses, but none of them resolved. As it is, he has to live in a future in which he is penniless, homeless, and cannot even use his real identity! He has to give tours in a house that should be rightfully his, while acting as himself, while also pretending to be "Charles Garland," while surrounded with evidence of how his greatest enemy stole Charles' own milling inventions to make himself into the town's hero. How anyone can finish this movie and be happy with how it concluded is a true mystery!

The concept of this entire movie was sweet and promising, but unfortunately, it didn't deliver for me.

Ryan Paevey and Erin Cahill

[Jackbv123 · 8/10 · 16 November 2020]

I expected a take on Kate and Leopold. It is that only in the main premise and maybe some other minor ways. It really is an unusual Christmas premise.

Ryan Paevey and Erin Cahill have a very comfortable chemistry. They have plenty of screen time together and watching them interact is enjoyable.

I really didn't know what to expect. There are some things that it is obvious are going to be important to the story. How or to what ultimate end was never certain in my mind. In fact the climax went differently than my guess. The last shot is interesting.

Funny total aside: my sister and I joke about enumerating all the little devices that appear in many of these movies. One of them is that in almost every romance movie, the leading lady comes down a set of stairs dressed beautifully and the leading male looks on in awe. Watch for the switcheroo on this.

A Sentimental Time Travel Story for the Christmas Season

[lantern4444 · 6/10 · 5 September 2021]

This is purely a sentimental family story about a time traveler from the past arriving in a charming modern situation. It involves all the drama of the past colliding with the future in terms of history, relationships and ultimately true love.

A Unique Story And Very Well Done

[jagfannn · 9/10 · 16 November 2020]

This movie has a creative story line that more than holds your interest. Ryan Paevey and Erin Cahill have very good chemistry together. It's well written and the supporting cast does a great job. This isn't your ordinary Hallmark Christmas movie and it's well worth watching.

Good but disappointing ending

[nicole_paradis04 · 6/10 · 3 January 2021]

I enjoyed the storyline but I was really expecting more from the ending. Lots of loose ends left untied, very frustrating. Cute nonetheless.

Sweet Time Travel story.

[eb999 · 8/10 · 20 November 2021]

I really liked this story, but I confess that I'm a sucker for time travel plots. Anyway, this was a generally satisfying play on the theme of "a man out of his own time" with Ryan Paevey being a lovely romantic lead. Erin Cahill was fine as well, but being a woman, I'm always more drawn to the attractive male leads.

I do have one caveat. It's not really a criticism, but more a wish. I really thought this would have been more interesting (and believable) if Erin Cahill' s character could have somehow gone back with Charles to his time. Of course, there would have to have been script changes, so it would have been a different film. However, somehow I can't imagine a 19th century man so easily giving up his whole very successful life. Also, a small thing but how can Charles fit into a new life in the 21st century without any documentation (i.e social security number, birth certificate, et.al.)

A whimsical blast from the past ...... ignore the negative reviewers who just love to nit pick

[Ed-Shullivan · 7/10 · 17 December 2020]

I am quite sure that the negative reviewers who nit picked about the historical inaccuracies of the time traveler Charles Whitley (Ryan Paevey) who travels through time from more than a century ago would also freely criticize such classics as Ebenezer Scrooge seeing three ghosts, or Dorothy tapping her shiny red shoes to get back to Kansas, and God forbid trying to explain the flying monkeys? My point is just enjoy this whimsical Christmas romance and accept the story line that has a business owner time travel to the current period and find himself living in his house which ahs been turned into a tourist site with his mysterious disappearance still unknown for more than a century.

The tour guide named Megan Turner (Erin Cahill) sure knows everything there is to know about this mysterious businessman Charles Whitley from the late 1800's who suddenly just vanquished into thin air and left his fiancé high and dry at the altar.

If you believe in magic and enjoy a whimsical Christmas themed story then A Timeless Christmas will not disappoint you. Set your clock and be prepared to step back in time for a magical romance more than 100 years in the making. I give it a pleasing 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Hated It!

[netherlandj · 2/10 · 1 December 2020]

While this might have started out interesting it quickly started going downhill. First, when Charles realizes he's not in his own time, and then how he "takes" to that time without any problems. He essentially has landed in a time that he knows nothing about and winds up being okay with that. In his own time, he owned a company, was wealthy, had a beautiful home, etc.; then - after knowing a woman for FIVE DAYS decides to stay there even though he's homeless, penniless, can't live by his own name, and has given up everything because of her. All because this woman told him that his fiancee married his enemy and lived happily for decades (then why is said woman being portrayed as his fiancee in the tours of the home?). Logically, (if the writers had thought about it), he would have gone back to his own time, righted his wrongs, protected his home, income, property, etc.; broken up with his fiancee - and somehow, if it was meant to be, he would have found his 'one true love.'. There are so many ways this could have been written to a better result, but this one failed completely.

Lovely Christmas Story!

[youngandrestless12345 · 9/10 · 16 November 2020]

I watch a LOT of Christmas movies and was very pleased to see this Hallmark movie. It was really good, Ryan Peavey and Erin Cahill were great together!

Can we get a Part 2??? Would love to see a continuation of the story!!

Different is Good !

[Lew777 · 7/10 · 1 December 2020]

This was a welcome change from Christmas Tree Farms, Gingerbread Festivals or having leads whose parents died at Christmas ! The time travel story was well enacted and kept us guessing on how it would end for a while. Certainly for me , it was Erin Cahills best Hallmark role and was ably supported by Ryan Paevey (but he does need to inject a bit of oomph in his dialogue !). A solid 7 from me.

Ridiculous and unrealistic

[mosullvn · 1/10 · 8 March 2021]

I usually love everything Hallmark and look forward to binging on their movies during the holiday season. However, I feel compelled to write a review about this movie despite watching it months ago. The female "love interest", played by Erin Cahill, was a lonely and desperate woman who prioritized her work life over her love life. As a result, she didn't date. Now enters a handsome and chivalrous man who is transported from the past to her time. He eagerly searches for a way back to his life, his fiancee and a life that he was somewhat bored with - his life. Instead of helping, she shows him the life that his fiancee and her new husband were able to establish without him. She essentially emotionally blackmails him to stay with her by convincing him that everyone was better off without him. The "romance" in this story is engineered and rings false.

Ryan Paevey is adorable in this movie!

[angelsusan · 9/10 · 16 November 2020]

Really enjoyed this! It's been a long time since I watched a movie and not want to get up and miss anything!

Loved Charles's reaction to future technology and glad they showed him learning about everything. (They failed to achieve this in the movie 'Journey Back to Christmas')

Erin was great as usual. Excellent chemistry between them and truly enjoyed watching them together. Supporting cast was also very good and liked their side stories.

But, my favorite was the story. It seems as if they (sort of) made a movie out of the Christmas Clock that was mentioned in another Hallmark movie called 'A Very Merry Mix-Up' (which is a great movie, too.)

Finally, I honestly didn't know how this one was going to end because of the different possibilities. I hoped he would stay but also go back. But, if he went back knowing what he learned, he would completely change everything in the future so I was a little worried. I really REALLY wanted him to back and right some things, (And set himself up for the future) then return to Erin/Megan.

Love this movie and how it ended but I wanted more to happen. Seemed like the end came too fast and easy.

(Additional note: Didn't anyone think to check the security camera footage that Charles saw when he first woke up in his office in the future? I kept waiting for Megan to do that but it never happened. I thought they showed us that for a reason but I guess it wasn't necessary...)

Wonderful story

[momsipadonly · 6/10 · 15 July 2021]

This was a terrific story and I wanted to love it but the female lead just fell flat. Male lead was perfect for the part. There just wasn't any believable chemistry.

Charming Despite Some Flaws

[dw-98937 · 8/10 · 22 November 2020]

I'm glad other reviewers noticed the full moon timing problem, as I did. That's a pretty glaring error. And we're supposed to believe a tuxedo that's over a hundred years old would still look perfect?

Those things aside, this movie was different from the usual Hallmark Christmas plot, and I enjoyed it. As another reviewer said, suspend skepticism and just enjoy it.