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Tell us about your ‘Winter Escape’. The second movie in Hallmark’s Winter World series takes its audience to the southern most region in Antarctica. While this movie is more oriented towards an adventure than a love story, there are still four romance subplots woven into the film (five if we include one of the female characters who appears to be interested in two male characters).
In Polar Opponents, Rhiannon Fish portrays Emma who is a court illustrator (who hopes to be an illustrator) and is currently abstaining from dating. Her father is carrying out his research in Antarctica and she receives a call from him, which sounds to her like he’s in an emergency. However, she is unable to determine the whole situation due to poor signal which makes the phone dead eventually. What else is expected of a daughter but to make her way from New York to Antarctica within 24 hours to ensure everything is fine with her father? Considering he is also known to have chest pains, it adds to the fear of him being lost somewhere in the ice and snow. Their base Chica who runs the camp cannot even reach him, but since he is known for disappearing for days at a time Emma’s father should be fine, don’t worry. Emma somehow makes her way from NYC to Argentina, where she tries to get on a cruise ship bound for the Antarctic. But guess what? You need special permits to travel to Antarctica (it is true you do!) and these permits take weeks or even months to get approved.
As luck would have it, a research team is sailing on the cruise liner for plot reasons, and at the same time, as Emma is doing her best to avoid Ingrid (Raissa Xavier), a cruise director that would not allow Emma onto the cruise, she is sneaking boarding and attempting to distract the head of the research team, Andy (Markian Tarasiuk).
While at the buffet, Andy caught up with me once more. He takes her in his cabin because he knows there’s a lot of trouble waiting for them, if she is discovered to be lodged in the ship. But cabin fever takes a turn on her and she disguises herself as a member of the staff, but Ingrid quenches her knowing there is a stowaway, so she and her assistant Martin (Michel Hersch) try to look for her as Andy distracts them. The ship reaches its destination and again Emma skips past Ingrid and Martin and sets foot on the continent and heads for the base to find Peg (Maeve Quinlan) who tries to convince her that her father Ian (Dean McDermott) is completely ok…even when she is unable to reach him.
Peg agrees to letting Andy accompany Emma in search of her father. Peg knows that Emma has never been to Antarctica and has no idea about its dangerous, (crevasses and storms), and that Emma’s presence on the continent needs to be kept on the down low. There was an emergency after all, but what was it? Ian’s ‘emergencies’ are just tragedies for penguins, like the one that had stuck on an iceberg and called out for her mate while being unable to swim back because of a pod of killer whales. (Whether it is important to call her for such reasons is not clear.) Ian was trying to reach her with ‘tethers’ which makeshift ropes to secure the iceberg but it could lead to him being stranded himself. He would most certainly have to leave the iceberg before it was too late… There is no way they can perform such a task, but one of the group members can, an engineer. The question is, can everyone work together to save the penguin and not involve Ingrid and Martin without committing an even greater catastrophe?
The production company truly put in the effort this time, as they filmed the first one in Ireland and this one in Antarctica, sort of. It was mostly filmed in Peru and Argentina while the port scenes were filmed in Brazil. The coast of Antarctica was used for some stock footage. The actors did not spend much time in the harsh settings, allowing the production crew to successfully pull off the illusion that they are all on the continent. There are quite a few shots that defy logic. Some of the green screen shots needed more delicate work to achieve a better result. The SPFX team decided to use the green render removal tool with the blatant ones. It feels a lot more real, considering it also looks like they shot on a real ship. They do deserve points for casting actors from the region to play the ship’s crew, even though it has drawbacks. Some claim the resetting sells the fantasy of the story taking place in Antarctica, however, the audience mewed up in winter may prefer warmer places instead.
The plot itself is a bit jumbled. Emma is endless in her rants concerning her father’s heart spasms. What is her intention to do when she eventually locates him? A court illustrator is what she is. Not a scientist or even a physician. There is no background that justifies her being qualified to search for her father all the way in Antarctica. Thankfully, Rhiannon Fish renders Emma so delightful that we root for her, even if she is breaking the law. Moreover, she manages to demonstrate a barely restrained interest in Andy, while not completely succumbing to him, because it is evident that Ingrid is also interested. Her acting is quite innate and charming. Eloquent Andy Marian Tarasenko is also quite good in this role. He plays Andy like a real man, a man of true courage, who is ready to risk his whole career to save Emma. The longer they spend together, the more he becomes enamored with her. After all, he is tired of her constant suggestion that Ingrid would be the ideal candidate for him, though he doesn’t try to hide the fact that he is getting more attached to Fish’s character. There is some good chemistry between Fish and Tarasiuk and they make a nice couple.
Dean McDermott is surprisingly solid as Ian, who is completely devoted to his penguins and very affectionate towards Emma, and he manages to maintain a good rapport with Maeve Quinlan (Peg) who it is clear he has some romantic feelings for. Raise Xavier’s Ingrid could have been an all out evil with a penchant for roaming after Emma everywhere on the ship and in Antarctica, but instead, she is more of a comic villain because Emma always manages to evade her. She does give a nice performance but her one drawback is that she appears at times not to cope well with the English dialogue and it’s her accent that makes her instinct inaudible. All in all, she has some humorous moments in the role to make the audience not hate her.
Michel Hersch was also entertaining as Martin, Ingrid’s dedicated aide and her other love (even if she seems unable to read him that he is completely infatuated with her). He has a funny episode where he interrogates Andy about Emma and he offers wonderful support to Xavier (and his accent is a little bit easier to understand). As previously mentioned, the movie has a very good set of actors to help out with such an unrealistic plot. Of course, the penguins also play a big role in capturing the audience attention, and there is a nice reward in the end.
Even with a blissful approach of serious winter, or at least in the Eastern part of the country, the romantic tales human and penguin characters are bound to kindle some joy into your heart.
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