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Keywords
holiday story, Hallmark movies, romance, Christmas, love, relationships, film review, storytelling, character analysis, holiday traditions
Summary
In this conversation, Nick and Leslie review a Hallmark holiday movie, discussing its plot, characters, and themes. They explore the romantic dynamics between the characters, the narrative structure, and the overall execution of the film. The conversation highlights the charm and flaws of the movie, providing insights into the Hallmark genre and its storytelling conventions.
Nick And Leslie (00:01.592)
Two days ago, Leslie and I watched our holiday story.
We did. So let's play that trailer and chat about
Nick And Leslie (00:15.168)
Okay, so our main characters in our holiday story are Joe and Chris. Chris is going to Joe's parents house for Christmas to meet her parents for the first time. They're young couple, they're dating. He looks so sick. He looks very under the weather. Something was going around at Hallmark that month. And she is on a Christmas train, Christmas themed
train ride that is gonna be late. And so she calls him and right before the battery dies on her phone, she says, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna be there to be there when you meet your parents, but whatever you do, don't and then the phone call cut Don't ask them about how they met. Yeah, is what it's supposed to be. there you go. And so he then proceeds to meet Dave and Nell. Or is it Gabe?
and smell? Anyways, not yet. But at this point, they're Dave and Nell. And so he asks, how did you two meet? And then the movie is the story of them meeting, which I got to say as an overall thing, I liked the story of them meeting. That was cute. It was fun. Yeah, it was. I don't think that we needed this whole narrative trick of it being inside another story.
But that's the hallmark of it. That's how they had to wrap the bow all together and bring it... But I think the story in itself of Dave and Nell meeting was strong enough to be its own film. I didn't care about Joe and Chris or their chemistry or their drama which gets absurd towards the end. that part? No, I didn't care. But we didn't need that. That was childish. And a little preview for this.
I've decided that I'm gonna start a new thing that I'm calling the... ...Chemistry-o-meter. Yeah. So, alright, let's go with the plot. So go through some notes. Do you have anything at the top you want to bring up before we start going down our notes? Not off the top of my head. Okay. New ideas with fruitcake? New ideas? Who knew?
Nick And Leslie (02:39.438)
They, so Chris, Dave and Nell, when they're telling the story of how they met, it was on that same Christmas train that Joe is getting stuck on. And it was over a conversation about- the annual ugly Christmas sweater contest. No, But this was the first time they were doing it. Yes, I'm sorry. It was the inaugural- Yes. Ugly Christmas sweater parade thing. Yeah.
Nick And Leslie (03:05.426)
And so they ended up chatting over their love for this specific brand of fruitcake and they talk about the different ways that they prepare it. And I remember Dave puts it in a mug, drizzled with eggnog on top. Soaked. Soaked in eggnog. And what was Nell's thing? You heat it up with chocolate chips. Okay.
My first note is that Chris has a nut allergy. So he brought carrot cake and then she served it. So not carrot cake, the fruit cake. then Joe's mom now serves it and he's like, no, I can't. I'm definitely allergic to nuts. So I thought that would be a plot point at some point in the movie, but no, it doesn't come back. It was just weird. And it's like, if you're so allergic to nuts, are you able to carry a
fruitcake around with you forever. I still don't understand allergies. That was weird. The idea of a Christmas train was very silly. Very It's just a commuter train from question mark to Connecticut, I guess. I don't know. I have no idea where someone is in the beginning and where they're ending up at the end. It's all very unclear, except that Dave's last name is Amher and the town is named Amher, right? Yeah. So he owns the town? Right.
The town is named after his ancestors. I've reached the point where a little bit of the Christmas movies are starting to blur Yeah, so we did watch two movies and we're gonna be reviewing them back-to-back So we're trying hard to remember what was what? So In the story of Dave and Nell meeting each other Dave The train gets stuck for a bit He sees through the window that place that they were talking about that makes fruitcake
Fritos? Fredos? I think it was, yeah, Freitos. F-R-E-D-O-S. So he's like, I'm gonna pop off the train quickly. I'm gonna jump off that train quickly. I'm gonna jump off that train, get us some fruitcake, cause I'm a charming guy. And then the train ends up rolling away. But I also thought it weird that the fruitcake was an even $20, which he just like threw on the table and took. And he already knew. It was very Was it on the? Right.
Nick And Leslie (05:22.382)
I don't know you should hand money to someone or if you're in Japan put it on the tray and slide the tray but he just throws the 20 grabs the thing and as he's outside he sees the train going away. He's throwing that white He's like I never got her number and they also gave each other fake names so and that kind of becomes the premise of the movie or their storyline is that they keep running into each other and then things pull them apart. We can call it maybe like the hallmark three where it takes like three times or something it took him like three times to finally
one of them to get the other's phone number to contact. Yeah. And we call it the hallmark three because they have about 10 minutes of story and they need to draw it out to two hours. Yeah. So, but it turns out Nell is in town because she's the new Comptroller. I guess she was assigned to this position. She wasn't elected. I feel like Comptroller is usually an elected position. I honestly have zero idea.
But she works with Park and Rec and divvies out permits and apparently gives fun city money for city parties. A city Christmas festival. That is... Now I'm like, do I need to dig deep to find out what's happening in our city? So I'd be like, why are we putting religion on it? It should be the winter festival. Right. Right.
meanwhile, Dave Ammer, he is the one organizing the festival. It's a family tradition and he hates that there's some new comptroller he's been emailing back and forth who's refusing his budget and keeps wanting to slash things. So he hates this woman. She hates him, but when they see each other in person, they don't realize they're the ones that they've been feuding over via email. Cause it took a few times for him to know their actual real names. Yeah. Yeah. Cause they had lied about the names. It was very cute. It was adorable.
And Dave has a daughter, Jo. Yeah. Yes. And so 10 years fast forward is the time difference between when Nell and or Eleanor and Dave met versus when Jo and Chris were meeting each other. Yeah. Yeah. So it is kind of two stories that 10 years ago of them telling how they met and then the current time of Chris meeting Jo's parents. I thought it was weird that
Nick And Leslie (07:50.36)
Dave said both TMI and TLDR at some point. TLDR. Too long didn't read. my gosh. See. It's like a Reddit thing. It takes me too long to realize. What's weird too is that was in the 10 years ago thing. And I don't know if TLDR was a thing 10 years ago, but. Someone check that. Please leave it in the comments. When did TLDR start? Yes. Did I say that right? Yes. Too long didn't read. I can't. I'm never gonna remember. That's a lot of your text messages sometimes.
Nick And Leslie (08:23.086)
If it's important, he'll tell me when he gets home. He was divorced. I thought that was interesting. No dead mom here. Divorced. Very active co-parenting going on. Yeah. Yeah. it sounds like everyone is over dad not like thinking things through and just like doing things on the whim and being really optimistic on everything and positive outlook when they're like
Be realistic. I've noticed that's a theme in Hallmark movies. They often want to have a man who is whimsical and in touch with his emotions and a woman who's too by the books. And I feel like that is subtly telling women that they need to be emotional and let just trust in the man that things will work out. We don't need men to tell us what to do and we don't need to be protected. Now that comes like
Another question, are these Hallmark movies written by men or women? Anyways, that's- yeah, we've discussed that and I think one of first two ones, yeah, anyway. I think we talked about the age of the writers of these movies. Yes, we have the generation. Whoever wrote, made a character say TMI and TLDR, I feel like they just learned that from their kids and they put it in the script. Right. Because nobody says that in- I guess people did say TMI. Well, I mean, it's like-
I feel like you could appropriately say like vibes or energy, but maybe not skittly Nick. I don't know what the kids are saying these days. So I can't give an example. I know you're not skittly. There's something like that. Yeah. It's like skibbity skibbity. Skibbity. God. Yeah. That's us. They keep missing each other. It's really cute. then they put together a missed connection website. my gosh. That doesn't show a URL. It's just missed connection. Joe posts it.
And they end up chatting with each other through there. Reminder Joe is Dave's daughter. The daughter, yes. Yeah, so posts like, hey, we had a connection on the train with Fruitcake and, you know, we didn't give the number. And so Eleanor sees it and Eleanor has a very sweet friend who is pushing her to find this guy and, you know, encouraging her. Yeah. Like you definitely sense Nell had a feeling of belonging.
Nick And Leslie (10:44.622)
when she would be with him for a few minutes and it felt nice and she that's why she kept chasing after him because she wanted that feeling of belonging to see if this is really where she belonged and to add to that which i found very weird is they still have not had a proper date they've only like ran into each other shit came up and then they had to dip and they missed each other what is a proper date in the society now a conversation that lasts more than 20 minutes did we have a proper date then
It took more than 20 minutes before that date concluded. I'm just saying things aren't always how they perfectly have to be. But anyways, while he is giving her a tour of a guess where the party's gonna be, she says to him, which I found very out of nowhere, I wouldn't mind having all of this. Yeah, because she wanted to feel, she liked the whole idea of it. It just seems very...
Hmm
Vulnerable for that early in a relationship. They're not in a relationship. Exactly. Okay I mean I kind of see what you're saying in a way but also so Dave is a carpenter and Apparently for the last like three generations. They've been trying to make this Santa throne chair that He apparently is finally finishing for it just took him 13 or 10 years something like that Excuse me
but he also has made like the gingerbread houses in the Christmas festival as well as all the Christmas trees that are real and whimsical looking. It's adorable for what it is. It's adorable. think they really mixed up the decor theme for this one. it was pretty scenery.
Nick And Leslie (12:38.138)
so then when it all does come out that they are actually the people who they thought they were, I wrote down feigned betrayal. I remember someone was like, I thought, was this again, mixing this with the movie we saw last night. I remember someone yelled at a whole bunch of people and then they yelled at the person that they shouldn't have yelled out. No, that was yesterday's. But I do remember being an overreaction.
to like, Hallmark's like, it's the final act. We need to have someone really feel like this is not what they want and then be really sad for a bit before it becomes emotional. it was the Chris and Joe boyfriend and girlfriend, Joe, the boyfriend. That's right. I'm sorry. Chris, the boyfriend said, I love you to Joe. No, actually he was about to say it. that's right. He didn't even And she squirted icing all over his face.
was an inappropriate. It was a mm shot. But the amount of icing that came out was not the amount of icing on his face. So that part was a little bit disappointing. face that received the most of the icing, I'm sure. I mean, wanted to, it was a good amount that gushed out. So that's how she shut him up, is just squeezing icing all over his face. Didn't even wipe it off. No, she just, she squirted his face and then ran away. Ran away. It was Nell who came over and was like, what just happened? Are you okay?
Can I clean off your face and start wiping his face as Chris is just like what I thought she loved me because he had basically already spoken to Nell about this and Joe's biological mother. Yeah, he was active which I did not write down her name But they were like, my gosh Nell, no, no, there's somebody else Joe loves you like we know she does she's never acted like this like and so he was really confident and
Even right before Joe said that she loves him but didn't say it to his face. Like that is so... That annoys me. Yeah. I just want to be like, how old are you? You're not meant to communicate with people yet, apparently. just... But also, I can't talk. And then so what's rough too is like then they have, no, they're not going to get together. It's a fake sad moment. And...
Nick And Leslie (14:58.926)
She calls up and she's like, you not being here for Christmas made me realize that I actually do love you. yeah. yeah. I thought that was so dumb that like you only realize you love someone when they're gone. It shows that you really just love the existence of someone being there. Not that individual person. that's a little codependency right there. but was it, this was the other one we were talking
Nick And Leslie (15:28.332)
What? Not waiting for the perfect moment. Yeah, that was this one. Yeah. Yeah. So we were talking about like, she was wanting like the right moment to say it, or he was. But it's also, we were talking about just don't wait for the right moment. If you feel like you to say, love you, don't wait for the perfect moment. Yeah. Like some people. Yeah. It's a side note. Yeah.
Back in the day when Nicholas and I were dating, I was like, you know what, he was gone. Yeah, you were gone. You were in Miami. You were visiting family or whatever. And it might have been Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving? No, not that early, Christmas. I don't remember. You were gone. And I was like, I miss this man so much. And yeah, I love him. And then so I decided to not wait. And I decided to say it over the phone.
And I said, I love you. And then he says, do you think it's too soon? And I'm like, excuse me. And I'm like, all right. See how you feel.
So we ended that conversation. So I loved her but I didn't say it because I was planning on baking her a big cookie when I got back that had it written on it. I unfortunately am very upset and took it out on my Ui Boom speaker.
Yeah, and so yes because of that just say it don't make it Yes, I did get a very beautiful section the city I love you cookie I in but It was fantastic by lost my speaker. Wasn't that a friend's cookie? my god I came and I'm getting my New York sitcoms I wrote down wet kisses. It was a very wet kiss between that was an intense mooch
Nick And Leslie (17:24.066)
They had been practicing off stage. and I wrote down a line that I think both annoyed us. And you continued the tradition so Joe could do the same.
So someone was like giving Dave props for like pulling off this party. yeah. For also finally. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah. And then and they're like, you did such a great job. You continue the triton. So now you continue the tradition. So now Joe can do the same. So now it's become her responsibility. Her response, forcing the daughter to take on the Christmas festival tradition of like planning and everything like that. No. What was it like? like to say tradition is pure pressure from the dead. Yeah.
Peer pressure from dead people. So on the charisma-o meter Dave and Nell, so this meters is zero to ten zero is siblings I don't know. There's some siblings that have chemistry And ten means they totally fucked on set So for Dave and Nell, I think I want to put them in like a six
It was definitely believable and I was on their side of wanting them to get together. we not dye or color beards or anything like that? It's way too obvious. It is way too obvious and it's just it's aging them. It's making them look like a used car salesperson. way or you know a vacuum door to door salesperson. Just like I think of like this
slicked back hair and you can, it's just, it's not good. We know it's died. Now for Joe and Chris, I'm giving them a three.
Nick And Leslie (19:11.886)
It was weird. Joe looked like he was dead. Sorry, Chris looked like he was dead. Joe looked like a 14 year old. Joe was just way too excited the entire time. No one that age has that much excitement for. Yeah. Also, yeah, she was going to like cry at every whim. I don't. She was everywhere. She was a mess. She was a mess. Yeah. So I'm going to give him a three. Although, know, guess what? I do hope to still see her later on in another. yeah. Production. Yeah. Ten years from now, it'll be.
this season. Our holiday story part two. I was saying this season. Writing I give this a five out of ten. Acting four out of ten. Directing four out of ten.
So it's I guess above average for Hallmark below average for films. Yes, I do think you should stream this. Yeah, this one it was it was cute. But again, I we could edit out all of the Joe Christoph or tomorrow's the last day to stream. Anyway, you have to like I think November 5th to stream it. 2024.
Alright, and so that was our holiday story. See you in a couple minutes for us to talk about our next film, Holiday Mismatch. Go have some fruitcake with eggnog. Mmm.
