Come Fly With Me - Hallmark

Come Fly With Me, starring Heather Hemmens and Niall Matter, premiered on Hallmark Channel on March 9th. And, like last week’s movie, even though they touted it as a “premiere” it technically wasn’t new for 2024 since it aired last year on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, which they’ve now rebranded to just “Hallmark Mystery.” 

Heather Hemmens is new to me. But I can see she’s made a few other Hallmark movies, including Christmas in my Heart, Caribbean Summer and Love, Take Two. I recognized Niall Matter right away from the Aurora Teagarden mysteries. And he’s got a long list of other movies including Rip in Time, Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater, and Engaging Father Christmas, to name just a few. As usual, I’ve got a lot to say about this one so let’s dive right in and talk about it!

Let me just start with the amazing opening! Come Fly With Me opens with an exhilarating scene of the Air Force Thunderbirds in the air. The cinematography was awesome. And they interspersed scenes like this all throughout the movie. 

Emma, played by Heather Hemmens, is an Airforce pilot who is the newest recruit on the famous Thunderbirds.  Her call sign is “Blitz Fitzgerald” and apparently the origin story of how she acquired that name is a deep dark secret that only “insiders” are entitled to know. And over the course of the movie she’s going to be studying, a LOT, to learn the formations for an upcoming show. She’s also a single mom who just moved in with her mother in Las Vegas. She and her daughter, Lucy, spent the last two years in Japan, so they don’t know anyone locally, yet.

Paul, played by Niall Matter, is also a single dad to a daughter, Alice, who dreams of becoming a pilot some day herself. Alice and Lucy are about the same age and they meet at a doctor’s office. They quickly become best friends through their shared love of “The Pilot Girls,” not to mention, Alice is in awe of Lucy’s own mother being on the Thunderbirds.

Lucy happens to be at the doctor’s office because her grandmother is a nurse and she’s looking after her. Alice, however, is there for a more serious reason. We soon learn that Alice was born with a bad heart and has had several heart surgeries in her life, and one day she will ultimately need a new one. 

Later that evening, I was admittedly a little confused when Emma came home from work and said, “Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been so busy I missed when my daughter made a new friend.” I understand the point of that line was to show us that Emma is busy at work all the time and wishes she could spend more time with Lucy, but that line just didn’t make any sense to me because the girls had only met a few hours earlier and Emma was just walking in the door at the end of the day. 

Anyway, the girls become so close that they end up wishing they were sisters and decide to make it their mission to bring their parents together. Which is an interesting challenge because right out the gate, Paul and Emma seem to have nothing in common other than the fact that his daughter wants to be a pilot and Emma happens to be one. Otherwise, he owns an Outdoor Supply Store and she doesn’t even like the great outdoors. 

It was pretty clear to me that Paul seemed interested in Emma early on, but Emma spends most of the movie focusing on studying and training for the Thunderbirds. And again, they have nothing in common. Another little tid-bit about my impression of her character - I actually thought she came across as being insecure and full of self-doubt, which I found odd for a Thunderbird pilot. But I was hopeful that that would be part of her character growth as the movie progressed.

Paul’s daughter Alice actually became one of the main focuses of the movie. In this scene she’s showing Lucy her scar from all of her surgeries and explains that when she was born one side of her heart was lazy, and it still doesn’t pump blood like it’s supposed to.

I do love the fact that we got to know the characters pretty well in this movie. Unlike some Hallmark movies, I wasn’t left wishing they had delved a little deeper into each of the characters. Obviously, Emma grew up wanting to be a pilot for the Thunderbirds. Although, I’m going to say this, I wouldn’t have known that if they hadn’t come out and said it. For a good part of the movie I didn’t get the impression that she really wanted to be there. I guess I’m trying to say I felt no sense of passion from her. But maybe that was intentional since we did get to find out what happened to Lucy’s father.  Paul grew up spending a great deal of time outdoors camping together with his grandmother, and the two of them ended up opening the first store together.

Now, this is where I would typically tell you what the premise of the movie is. And I’m going to be honest, an hour into the movie and I still didn’t know what that was. Other than the fact that the girls wanted to bring their parents together, this movie was seriously missing a “hook.” I didn’t feel any crisis building, there was no sense of anticipation. I felt like this movie needed a better sense of direction.  Let me give you some examples. 

In Easter Under Wraps the premise of the movie is the Director of Marketing of a large chocolate company goes undercover to visit one of their factories to learn more about how the men women are doing working on the front-line of production. While she’s there, she falls in love with someone who doesn’t know her true identity.

In Guiding Emily the main character loses her sight early on and she’s faced with the challenge of learning if and/or how she can live a full, normal life again. 

Even Love on the Right Course is about a pro-golfer whose game has been sliding and she goes home to train and refocus for the next big tournament and ultimately, decide whether she even wants to continue playing professionally.

In each of these three examples we know exactly where the story is going, and the two leads of the story play an integral role, working together, to achieve the end goal. And while they’re on their journey throughout the movie they grow closer and fall in love.

In Come Fly With Me we knew we would get to see an amazing air show near the end, which we did, and it was awesome! And I had a pretty good idea that Alice’s heart would be an important side-story, which actually became the critical moment near the end, but neither of these two stories involved Paul and Emma doing anything together. And without that I didn’t feel much magic in this movie.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad they did end up together, for Paul’s sake, because I could tell he cared about Emma, and for the girls’ sake because they really wanted their parents to be together. But I’m sad to say I didn’t feel enough character growth or transformation in Emma like I had hoped in the beginning. She changed her mind about Paul at the end, but just changing her mind wasn’t enough to make me feel any sense of magic here. And I never felt like Paul or Emma were really involved much in each other’s lives. To me, the only thing that brought them together was the girls wanted them together.

Having said that, I was glad to see that she developed a little bit of a bond with Alice. Alice was understandably feeling scared about her health and Emma was there for her when she needed her and that was very sweet. And yes, when Alice’s health became the focus of the critical moment near the end, Emma was the one who came to her rescue.   

But even after all that, I wasn’t sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of how she and Paul would end up together.  Like I said, I’m glad they did, but there were no tears or goosebumps about their love story. And that, for me, is a telltale sign of whether or not a movie feels magical, at least by my standards.  And on a side note - at the very end where was the officiant at their wedding? Is that a thing now to have weddings without someone officiating?

Overall, I’m glad I watched it. I think I felt a little better about it the second time through, and I might even watch it again or at least have it on in the background if it were on the air. The character development was solid. I liked Paul and the girls, and the grandmother, too.  And the footage of the Thunderbirds was amazing. But I was missing that hook early on. There was nothing gripping in the storyline to keep my attention on this one for a long time. So with that I’ll give this one a rating of 3 out of 5.

What did you think? Was I too hard on this one? I took a sneak peek at some of the reviews on Hallmark and I think I might be in the minority in my opinion here.  And I may be able to understand why. This one just wasn’t right for me.  

Well, I think that wraps up my thoughts on Hallmark's Come Fly With Me. As always, thank you so much for being here and being a part of the Magical Movie Club. We'll be back next week to chat more about our favorite magical movies!  

Hallmark Channel's Original Preview:  Come Fly With Me - Preview

Hallmark Channel Movie Site: Come Fly With Me