The Hallmark movie, ‘Winter Escape’, takes us on another cruise, this time through the Mediterranean, with two workaholics who are forced to get to know each other while Mother Nature and other forces conspire to keep them away from their ship.
In Missing the Boat, Kristoffer Polaha plays Parker Andrews, a man who works constantly and never takes vacations. His sister Emily (Amy Louise Pemberton) drags him onto a cruise, but he needs to stay focused on his work, which at the moment involves his company looking to sell the cruise line they're traveling on. Parker is also not too happy that his boss, Adam Crandall (Trey Warner), has also decided to join the cruise to ingratiate himself with the potential buyers.
Director: Maclain Nelson
Writers: Judith Berg, Sandra Berg, Maclain Nelson
Stars: Emilie Ullerup, Kristoffer Polaha, Amy Louise Pemberton
Parker, who doesn't really like being on a ship, meets Kelly Coates (Emilie Ullerup) on deck, unaware that she is on the cruise incognito, working for the company that might buy the cruise line, and that her job is to find all the flaws in the ship and its operations to report back to her superiors. Emily and Kelly quickly become friends, bonding over their jokes at Parker's expense, who can't take his eyes off his laptop. Parker also finds it a little unsettling that his boss and his sister are getting along a little too well.
While Adam stays on the ship with the potential buyers, Parker, Emily, and Kelly disembark to visit the sights at their first stop, and while Emily goes to the beach, Parker and Kelly decide to look for a waterfall mentioned in the guidebooks. Since they were the last to book the trip, they end up with donkeys instead of horses, and once they reach the waterfall (a strange sight that looks anything but real), the donkeys run away, forcing them to chase after them. With only an hour to get back to the ship, they try everything, but the ship sails without them.
They try to rent a car from twin brothers after being told there's no overnight train, but the second brother tells them they'll have to take the night train (the brothers worked together in different locations to scam tourists), but midway through the journey, there's a strike. Kelly manages to communicate with an Italian woman and, through her new translator, makes a passionate plea to the workers, explaining that both she and Parker need to get to their ship because their jobs can bring more tourists to the region. But the Italians don't want more tourists. Kelly assures them that there will always be tourism, but that they will control the number of people who come to their region, convincing the workers to return to work and that they could strike again at 6:00 a.m. (the union boss just wanted to go home, so it didn't take much to convince him).
But a "medicane" (a Mediterranean hurricane) diverts the ship to a different port (even though the storm isn't near the ship), so Parker has to pull some strings and drop his bosses' names to get himself and Kelly two executive suites at a luxury hotel until they can get to the next port. But all the commotion has caused Parker's recurring back problem to worsen, and Kelly finally has to reveal who she is and why she's on the ship. Parker tells his sister this surprising news, who tells him to do whatever he can to keep Kelly away from the ship so she doesn't ruin their business. Both Parker and Kelly fall asleep and rush to catch a taxi to the airport to get to the next port of call, but Parker forgot his passport, so instead of delaying Kelly, he puts her in the taxi and promises to catch up with her as soon as he can. As he contemplates the sea, Kelly appears because she didn't want to leave without him (and his back problems have improved since she forced him to see a specialist doctor who discovered his pain was entirely psychological).
With the help of her Italian friend, Kelly manages to get a ride to the dock and a boat to the next port in Dubrovnik, but once on board, she runs into Adam, who apologizes for telling Parker to keep her away from the ship, which surprises her. Back in her cabin, she has to deal with dozens of missed calls from her boss, and when she explains what happened, he informs her that they've hired someone else to complete her work and that her services are no longer needed. At all. Now blaming Parker for losing her job, Kelly wonders if everything they've shared over the past few days was real, and it's going to take a lot to convince her that it was (or maybe a Margherita pizza will be enough to do the trick).
Missing the Boat is another charming film in the "Winter Escape" series that successfully transports us to the warm Mediterranean climate. Screenwriters Judith Berg, Sandra Berg, and Maclain Nelson have created believable characters in mostly plausible situations, even when the plot relies on one coincidence after another to keep the characters off the ship so they can get to know each other better. Is it contrived? Sure, but the important thing is that it doesn't feel so forced that you roll your eyes. You get swept up in the story because the characters are charming and the locations are interesting.
The location shooting is wonderful, although I'm still wondering about that waterfall. And aside from a few shots on the ship's deck, the interiors are... questionable. Kelly's cabin is enormous and looks like the same one seen in Polar Opposites (at least that's what my memory tells me). But is there only one dining room on the ship that also doubles as an activity room? We only see the characters eating in this single space (and why are there no tablecloths on the tables?) and it's the same place where Emily and Adam take dance lessons. It doesn't look at all like a typical cruise ship common area. Luckily, most of the film takes place in different locations, which distracts from the limited cruise ship scenes.
The four main actors contribute to the film's appeal. Kristoffer Polaha is absolutely charming as Parker, able to deliver dad jokes and sarcasm naturally, as if it were second nature. He plays the back pain situation authentically, and at one point we wonder if he's actually following Adam's orders to keep Kelly off the ship. He always seems game for whatever the story throws at him, and he has great romantic chemistry with Emilie Ullerup and great sibling chemistry with Amy Louise Pemberton. I've always considered Polaha one of Hallmark's more dramatic leading men, but here he shows he has excellent comedic timing and a great sense of humor.
He's a truly delightful actor. Matching him is Emilie Ullerup as Kelly. She has to maintain her professionalism without appearing to be "working" so as not to arouse suspicion, especially when she discovers who Parker is. But she makes Kelly very likable, and it's not hard to believe that she and Emily hit it off so quickly (especially since they can bond over making fun of Parker for always being "at work").
But she also connects with Polaha, and even when their situations become tense and he gets grumpy, she manages to remain calm and reassure him, showing that Kelly genuinely cares about Parker by getting him an appointment with the only doctor in town for his back pain, and the expression on her face when he doesn't go to the airport speaks volumes about her feelings for him. Fortunately, the writers gave her the opportunity to talk to him about what may or may not have happened so that the budding relationship could get back on track. Ullerup and Polaha have fantastic chemistry, and they make you want Parker and Kelly to find common ground to continue their romance.
Amy Louise Pemberton is also very good as Emily. She delivers sarcastic remarks skillfully, has a good rapport with Kelly (played by Ullerup), and does a good job flirting with Adam (played by Trey Warner), while also managing to rein in her somewhat manic personality, becoming his conscience when she finds out what he told Adam to do (even though it backfired a little). She also makes Kelly, who has just lost her job, somewhat indispensable to Adam, helping him win over potential buyers, possibly demonstrating that she can also be an asset to his company, in addition to his personal life (much to Parker's chagrin, at first).
Warner is the over-the-top comic relief of the film; Adam always seems to have some harebrained scheme up his sleeve to sell the company, but he's still willing to listen to Emily. He has to maintain a delicate balance without becoming absurd, and he does it very well. At first, Adam comes across as a bit irritating, but in the end, he proves that he's actually a good guy. The film features a large cast of characters who appear in various locations, with special mention to Orlando Seale as the twin brothers in two very funny performances, and to Laurence Bouvard as Dr. Vulcano, the "New Age" doctor who can "feel" where Parker's back pain is coming from: deep within his soul. She doesn't do much more than deliver her lines with a rather deadpan humor and give him intense stares, but her performance is perfect and memorable.
In short, Missing the Boat is a charming comedy set in the Mediterranean that prefers to focus on adventures on land rather than at sea, building a romance between two characters that feels natural thanks to the chemistry between the two actors who bring them to life. If you were to get stranded on the Mediterranean coast, you would definitely want to be with these people.
Missing the Boat is 1 hour and 24 minutes long, is rated for all audiences (TV-G), and is available to stream on Hallmark+.
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