Paging Mr. Darcy - Hallmark

Paging Mr. Darcy premiered on Hallmark Channel on February 3rd and stars Mallory Jansen and Will Kemp. Directed by Peter Wellington. 

This was the fifth new movie release for Hallmark for 2024 and the first of the Jane Austen-themed "Loveuary" series for the month of February.

After a couple of disappointing movie premieres in January I had high hopes for a new one based on Pride and Prejudice. It may be the only Jane Austen novel I've read, but it's one of my absolute favorites! Did the movie meet my expectations? Well let's get right to it and find out!

Have you ever had a feeling about something that you just can't quite put your finger on? I experienced that Saturday night during the opening credits. As soon as I saw this animation I just knew this movie was going to be a magical experience for me, and it was! Was that really a bright idea to give that away so soon? Maybe not, but I hope you'll keep reading while I share all the reasons why I feel that way.

Mallory Jansen and Will Kemp play the two lead characters in this movie. I'm familiar with Will Kemp from seeing him in a couple of other Hallmark movies including Christmas Waltz and Love, Romance & Chocolate.

He's also good in The Dancing Detective series, although I haven't actually seen his most recent Christmas movie from 2023, A Not So Royal Christmas. I saw that that one has very mixed reviews online so I'm curious to watch it the next time it airs. Although this is not her first movie with Hallmark, Mallory Jansen is new to me, so I was looking forward to seeing her with no preconceived opinions of her one way or the other.

Paging Mr. Darcy opens on an airplane.

Eloise Cavendish, played by Mallory Jansen, is reading Pride and Prejudice and becomes somewhat defensive when the passenger next to her makes a comment that she must be a romantic. We learn that she's a literary scholar whose specialty is Jane Austen novels. Clearly, she is the "Elizabeth" of this story even though she denies it every chance she gets. She is headed to Princeton to be a keynote speaker at the Jane Austen League of America Annual Conference and Ball. For the rest of the movie they just call it JALA. She is also hoping to meet Victoria Jennings, played by Carolyn Scott, while she’s there. Professor Jennings is the head of the Princeton hiring committee and Eloise wants to make a good impression on her because she hopes to land an open professorship position at Princeton. 

We also meet Eloise's younger sister Mia, who is a little more immature and overdramatic to say the least. But she is also very much a romantic at heart. To give you a better idea of her character, she just broke up with her boyfriend because she was insulted by the lackadaisical way in which he proposed.

Next we are introduced to Sam Lee, played by Will Kemp, who is dressed to the nines in a Mr. Darcy costume holding a sign at the airport with Eloise's name on it. He says he is to be her Guest of Honor Liaison and offers to give her a ride from the airport to the location of the conference. Feeling mortified to even be seen with him, especially since people are beginning to gather around and take notice of him, she refuses his offer and tries to order a ride-share instead.

Now, I have only a couple of minor criticisms of this movie and one of them happened very early on at this airport scene. When she orders a rideshare she gets a message stating there are no available drivers in the vicinity at this time, and to try again in 20 minutes. I don't fly very much, but I’ve certainly seen the rideshare pickup zones and they’re almost always packed with cars waiting for passengers. Do they ever really run out of ride shares at an airport? As I've mentioned before in my previous videos, I don't like situations to look forced in movies, and this one seemed a little bit forced to me. But nonetheless, it did make for a funny moment next when she reluctantly accepted his offer and we got to see that his "chariot" was actually a small, compact car.

He takes her to the Duchess Square Resort and Gardens where they will be spending the weekend. Isn't this just absolutely beautiful? I know that they did some filming at the Grand Hotel at Carleton Place, but I can't tell if this image is of that hotel or not. I'll link to the article about the filming below if you're interested in reading more about it.

We soon find out just how much everything about the conference is very period-appropriate. Sam, in his Mr. Darcy getup, shows her an actual Dance Card that the conference had made up for the guests attending the ball and she unequivocally refuses him. She points out that she has observed women everywhere fawning all over him because he is "wearing breeches and a hat" and she is not interested in being one of them.

From here she moves on rather quickly when she spots Victoria Jennings across the lobby and rushes off to meet her. I know this was just a minor moment in the movie but I just loved the tea set and the hourglass timer at their table.

I almost wished I had a teacup like that. That would be so fun to have one out on my desk right now if I could. Clearly they went out of their way to try to make things look and feel very authentic for the period. And Victoria Jennings, much to Eloise’s disappointment, enjoyed every bit of what Eloise called, “Comicon for Jane Austin fans,” and said she looked forward to it every year. That was an awkward moment for Eloise! 

Actually, it gets even more awkward for her when she finds out that Sam is Victoria Jennings's nephew. Of course, Sam would have an influential aunt much like Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the novel! Except that unlike Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Victoria Jennings was a fun, entertaining character whom I enjoyed very much. Nothing stuffy about her at all. As a matter of fact, it was especially fun how she just assumed Eloise could not possibly be a "stuffed shirt academic" either! 

And oh how Sam jumped on that bandwagon! He took great pleasure in elaborating to his aunt just how much Eloise loved to dance and party like it's 1810! This was one of my favorite scenes. Especially when Eloise then apologizes to Sam for being mean to him and he figures out she's after that open position at Princeton. He turns this around to his advantage when she offers to do anything she can so long as he'll keep quiet about her really being one of those academic snobs his aunt doesn't like. So what kind of arrangement do they make? Well, he says he'll coach her on what his aunt likes and doesn't like in a Jane Austen scholar to help her get the job. His real MO is for her to get the position to keep an older gentleman by the name of Crispin Crane away from his aunt. Sam believes he is flirting with her in order to gain her affection and get the job himself. He can't stand it so he wants Eloise to "block him" as she says.

Of course that means she'll need to embrace all of the dancing, the costumes, and even the lawn games tournament. And Sam seems to love the challenge of getting her to lose the "stuffed shirt attitude."

In the next scene they show us a snippet of Mia up in the hotel room watching another Hallmark Channel movie, which I believe was Unleashing Mr. Darcy. As a matter of fact I was so amused by that plug that while I was live-tweeting about it I completely missed the part where Eloise walked in the room and flopped herself on the bed just like Mia had done earlier.

I really enjoyed the characters in this movie. The way they presented themselves on screen and interacted with one another, it was so apparent that they must have had a lot of fun making this movie. That's something I felt was missing from last week's movie, Romance With a Twist.  In that review I commented that the reporter could have been enjoyable had she been played like the Rita Skeeter character from Harry Potter. That was an example of an unlikeable role that was turned into a fun character to watch. Well, in contrast, in Paging Mr. Darcy they all clearly had fun and there were no unlikeable characters in my opinion. Okay, one might have been a little annoying to me, but fun to watch nonetheless. That's actually one of the reasons I've started paying attention to directors. I just sense that a good director can set the tone for how fun a movie can actually be regardless of how likable or unlikable a character may be. On that note, I hope to see more of Peter Wellington's work in the future.

I also look for character development in a movie. And this one had exactly what I had hoped for. Early on Eloise started out as a stuffed shirt academic and by the end she was wearing a period costume and dancing at the ball and actually seemed to enjoy it. And Sam started out wearing period pieces in public and not shying away from all the attention he was garnering.  And by the end even he was more comfortable just being himself. What particularly stood out for me was that both characters, while they behaved so differently in the beginning, did so for the very same reason. They were both hesitant to expose or reveal their true nature for fear of being hurt. Eloise accused Sam of behaving this way as a sort of defense mechanism. But of course when she said it she didn’t realize that she was doing the exact same thing.

Throughout the movie they each helped one another with letting their guards down, so to speak. Like Sam teaching her how to dance the "after dinner maggot" in the most quaint and beautiful little hidden garden.

By the way I love the fact that Will Kemp got another opportunity to dance in a Hallmark movie! Oh, and the cooking scene was just wonderful, too. Some of my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies have scenes where they’re having a lot of fun making cookies together, and this scene in the kitchen had that same feeling and energy. And then, to top it off, he surprised her with an omelet he made because he thought she looked hungry.

The remainder of the movie did have some ups and downs. There was some jealousy, misunderstandings, a magnificent romantic proposal, and even an unexpected cameo by Benjamin Ayres out on the golf course during the lawn games! That I loved!

What I didn't love was what I feel was another forced scene. One of the side stories involves Jenny, a former student of Eloise's. She wrote and was producing a Jane Austen themed play for the convention and on the day of the show she storms onto the scene all upset because the actors for Elizabeth and Darcy have just quit. Really? That seems too convenient and forced. I wish the writers had thought of something a little more clever than that. But interestingly enough, Eloise's sister Mia ends up playing the role of Elizabeth opposite Sam's Mr. Darcy. That's one of the moments we see Eloise starting to feel a twinge of jealousy, seeing them "kiss" on stage. Actually, I thought it was great when they showed us how they only pretended to kiss on stage! Now I’m dying to know, is this normal in stage productions?!

Soon after the play emotions were high and there was a big argument scene between Eloise and Mia. I have to ask, did anyone notice how the elevator button kept turning on and off every time Eloise pushed it? I mean, have you ever seen an elevator button turn off like that when you keep pushing it? Hmmm…

But the very next moment, wow! Eloise and Darcy said some things and I could absolutely feel the pain they were feeling. That was so well done. 

By now it was near the end and it was almost time for the ball. And I kid you not, this movie practically had a fairy godmother in Kelcey who said, "it's never too late to dress up for the ball!"

And the ball was no disappointment! That's where Mia was finally wooed by the truly romantic proposal she always wanted, Eloise opened up about her feelings, she told Darcy that she got the job at Princeton, they finally danced together and, of course, they shared their first kiss. Everyone had a happy ending, including his aunt! I won’t tell you about that one though.

Clearly I've made it no secret that I loved this movie. The cast, the characters, the storyline, everyone made this one magical. So yes, it’s a no-brainer for me to give it 5 reels. And I've marked it as a favorite on the Hallmark movie app.

So what did you think? I haven’t peaked at any other reviews online, yet. I wanted to get this done first. As always, please share your thoughts and opinions on this movie in the comments below. I'm interested to find out how many of you agree with me and how many think it's not worthy of nearly as much credit as I'm giving it.

As always, thank you so much for joining me for this week's Magical Movie Club review of Paging Mr. Darcy. We'll be back next week for the Hallmark premiere of Love & Jane and I look forward to more discussions about our favorite Magical Movies!  

Hallmark's Original Preview: Paging Mr. Darcy - Hallmark Preview

Sneak Peek Video: Paging Mr. Darcy - Sneak Peek

Hallmark Channel Movie site:  Paging Mr. Darcy - Hallmark Channel

Article Behind the Scenes: Paging Mr. Darcy - Behind the Scenes

Watch with Amazon Prime: Paging Mr. Darcy (Prime Video)