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The Christmas Train · Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews

0:10
Speaker 1: Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark, a Hallmark review podcast. I'm
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Speaker 1: Megan and I'm a longtime Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm
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Speaker 1: a former homemark hater. On today's episode, we are continuing
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Speaker 1: our discussion of Hallmark Hall of Fame Christmas movies with
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Speaker 1: The Christmas Train, which was originally released on November twenty fifth,
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Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, and is now streaming on Hallmark Plus. Come
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Speaker 1: hang out with us over on Instagram, where we are
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Speaker 1: Girls Gone Hallmark for the latest late breaking homemark and
0:36
Speaker 1: Girls Gone Hallmark News. Should I kick off with the synopsis,
0:40
Speaker 1: Let's do it. A journalist embarks on a cross country
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Speaker 1: train ride at Christmas, having no idea this journey will
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Speaker 1: take him into the rugged terrain of his own heart.
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Speaker 1: Oh wow. Ron Oliver directed The Christmas Train, a Hallmark staple.
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Speaker 1: Oliver has amassed ninety three directing credits, including Love of
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Speaker 1: the Thanksgiving Day Parade, The Groomsman Trilogy, and dozens of
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Speaker 1: other fan favorite Hallmark movies. The teleplay was written by
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Speaker 1: Neil Debrovski and Tippy Dbrowski, a husband and wife writing team,
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Speaker 1: and is based on David Baldacci's best selling three novel
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Speaker 1: of the same name. Kimberly Williams Paisley stars as Eleanor.
1:20
Speaker 1: She's had a recurring role on the series nine to
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Speaker 1: one to one Nashville for the last few seasons, but
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Speaker 1: hasn't been on Hallmark since The Sister Swat Movies in
1:27
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Are you surprised by that? Yes? I
1:30
Speaker 1: am me too. On like twenty twenty one seems like
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Speaker 1: a long time ago. I'm actually surprised those movies are
1:37
Speaker 1: that old as well, me too. I'm doing this a
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Speaker 1: long time. I wish shouldn't you took the words right
1:43
Speaker 1: out of my mouth. Dermott mulroney stars as Tom. He's
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Speaker 1: known for films like My Best Friend's Wedding and The
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Speaker 1: Wedding Date. With more than one hundred and sixty acting
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Speaker 1: credits to his name, this remains his most recent Hallmark appearance.
2:00
Speaker 1: Lover stars as Max Powers. He has more than two
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Speaker 1: hundred acting credits, including the Lethal Weapon films, The Color Purple,
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Speaker 1: and Dream Girls. Joan Qusac stars as Agnes. I'll always
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Speaker 1: remember her as geek Girl Number one. That is what
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Speaker 1: her title was from the movie of sixteen Candles with
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Speaker 1: the headgear and she like wipes her mouth with her
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Speaker 1: like bib or whatever she's kind of going on. I
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Speaker 1: don't know. She has more than ninety acting credits, but
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Speaker 1: audiences will know her as the voice of Jesse and
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Speaker 1: the Toy Story franchise, most recently reprising the role in
2:32
Speaker 1: Toy Story five. Why have you seen it yet? I have?
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Speaker 1: Have you? No? I haven't. Was it good? I liked
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Speaker 1: it nice? I like it, but I'm not really sure
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Speaker 1: that we needed Toy Story five wasn't necessary. I'm not
2:46
Speaker 1: sure we needed Toy Story four. Toy Story three was
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Speaker 1: a great ending. I really only want the movie where
2:51
Speaker 1: we bring it all back to Andy. Yeah, but I
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Speaker 1: thought it was cute. I also have one more news
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Speaker 1: and note. You know this movie was a Hallmark Hall
3:00
Speaker 1: of Fame movie, right, Yes, And it did not air
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Speaker 1: on one of the big three networks. This was an
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Speaker 1: actual This was on Hallmark Channel, got It? Got It?
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Speaker 1: Does that change things for you? Does it change your
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Speaker 1: opinion of a movie? This movie? No? Why would? Okay?
3:17
Speaker 1: Just asking? Are you ready for my first impression? I
3:19
Speaker 1: am A train stranded in the snow has officially unlocked
3:24
Speaker 1: a brand new travel fear. Thank you very much for that.
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Speaker 1: Oh no. My first impression is I know Wendy's going
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Speaker 1: to tell you this movie was slow, but I'll say this.
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Speaker 1: You don't take the Christmas Train to get somewhere fast,
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Speaker 1: you take it for the journey. Oh, get out of here.
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Speaker 1: This was a direct quote from the movie. It was
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Speaker 1: so slow, guys, I'm gonna spoiler. I did not really
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Speaker 1: like this movie. What yeah? Out of here? No? I
3:50
Speaker 1: was like irrationally mad. I woke up mad thinking about
3:53
Speaker 1: this morning has like I hated the ending. Oh. I
3:57
Speaker 1: didn't say the ending either. I hated it in my
4:00
Speaker 1: version of the movie that never happens. You should see
4:03
Speaker 1: my list of wishes. But let's get into the likes. Okay,
4:06
Speaker 1: let's let you kick it off. My takeaway was that
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Speaker 1: the movie's message, at least before the ending, was this
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Speaker 1: is a story about reconnecting with people and rediscovering like
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Speaker 1: what really matters? Right, Wow, that's that's what I sound
4:22
Speaker 1: like the setup for a like Okay, that's what I liked.
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Speaker 1: I just wish that the movie left it there, like, huh,
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Speaker 1: gone are the days I feel personally there is this
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Speaker 1: people don't connect on this human level anymore. We like
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Speaker 1: don't look at each other where our heads are always
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Speaker 1: buried in our phones, and I know this, what's the
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Speaker 1: year this came out? Twenty seventeen, oh, twenty seven? Okay, well,
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Speaker 1: still like phone heavy then too, but we just like
4:48
Speaker 1: nobody talks to each other and like, no, you know
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Speaker 1: what I mean. At least that's my experience, and so
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Speaker 1: I was like, oh, let's force all these people into
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Speaker 1: this small metal tube and like make them talk to
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Speaker 1: each other. Kind of felt nice. Yeah, I really liked
5:03
Speaker 1: that too. And all of my likes are contingent on
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Speaker 1: ignoring the ending, because I do think the ending very
5:11
Speaker 1: much changes the movie. So I'm pretending like, oh, the
5:14
Speaker 1: big twist for me, I'm taking that out of it.
5:17
Speaker 1: I acknowledge that it happened, but I'm taking that out
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Speaker 1: of my likes for the moment because I think it
5:24
Speaker 1: undoes a lot of it one hundred percent. I felt
5:27
Speaker 1: like I was duped. Yeah, of course that's what makes
5:30
Speaker 1: me mad about it. Yes, so why I'm stif thinking
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Speaker 1: about it? Then next morning after I watched it, like
5:35
Speaker 1: literally woke up mad about it this morning. But if
5:38
Speaker 1: you think about it, like Ellie and what's his name? Tom,
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Speaker 1: m M, they weren't in on it, so their interaction
5:46
Speaker 1: was real, genuine. Yeah, our main love story. Okay, fine,
5:53
Speaker 1: but yes, I agree it does undo a lot of it.
5:55
Speaker 1: But I'm going to operate from the point of view.
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Speaker 1: I watched ninety five percent of this movie. Was I
6:01
Speaker 1: enjoyed this movie. We're deep in Tropeville with our Christmas
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Speaker 1: in July movies, and I feel like this movie. It
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Speaker 1: aired on Hallmark Channel. This movie operates for me just
6:11
Speaker 1: outside of the classic Christmas tropes. There's a lot of
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Speaker 1: classic Christmas to it, but it's not as and I
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Speaker 1: think there's always going to be some level of formula
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Speaker 1: that is applied to these movies. But it's warm and
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Speaker 1: cozy like a holiday movie should be, and it does
6:32
Speaker 1: for me. I know, as cliche as it sounds, like,
6:34
Speaker 1: the word heartwarming is the best word I can apply
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Speaker 1: to this movie. If you recall last week, my husband
6:40
Speaker 1: had some very specific requests for Christmas movies and he
6:43
Speaker 1: did not watch this with me because he's seen it before.
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Speaker 1: And he was like, it's not Christmas enough. But it's
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Speaker 1: not Christmas enough because I was gonna have like gingerbread
6:52
Speaker 1: and like it's in town, and yeah, yes, I don't
6:56
Speaker 1: agree with that take. Is what I'm going to say.
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Speaker 1: Last week's movie Christmas with Holly not a Christmas movie,
7:00
Speaker 1: in my opinion, a movie that had a Christmas scene.
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Speaker 1: This movie is very much a Christmas movie. I agree.
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Speaker 1: I really like that scene where everybody is giving each
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Speaker 1: other's gifts that they had brought for other people to
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Speaker 1: the people on the train, because you know, I thought that.
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Speaker 1: I thought that was heartwarming and that gets back to
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Speaker 1: oh connection with the people and humanity at this level.
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Speaker 1: I liked that. What was my point that I was
7:32
Speaker 1: gonna make here and there is Have you ever done
7:36
Speaker 1: a Christmas train situation? No, like the ride to the
7:39
Speaker 1: North Pole. Yeah? I like that. Part of me finds
7:44
Speaker 1: that kind of charming. But do these things actually exist?
7:49
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know. They're not just on some
7:52
Speaker 1: like I was gonna say Greyhound. Greyhound is a bus.
7:55
Speaker 1: I don't Amtrak train? Right? They are? Are they on?
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Speaker 1: And it's all decorated, like are we getting I've never
8:02
Speaker 1: been on a train so like, Actually I have been
8:05
Speaker 1: on a train, but there was not like a bartender
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Speaker 1: who dressed up like Santa and a Christmas tree and
8:10
Speaker 1: people were riding it cross country to get from one
8:13
Speaker 1: place to the other. Well, there are cross country trains.
8:16
Speaker 1: Plenty of people take the trains for across state lines
8:19
Speaker 1: across the country. It's not really it's not a quick
8:23
Speaker 1: way to travel. Is it decorated for the holidays? I
8:26
Speaker 1: don't know, Like space is limited, but I could see
8:28
Speaker 1: a situation where they've got like a little Christmas de
8:31
Speaker 1: core happening in the dining car. You know, I think
8:34
Speaker 1: the short train trip and the long train trip experiences
8:38
Speaker 1: and the cars are going to be different. I've never
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Speaker 1: been on an overnight train with like a sleeper car.
8:43
Speaker 1: I do think their sleeper cars were much larger than
8:47
Speaker 1: anything you would actually get. Ellie and Tom's rooms were enormous. Yeah,
8:53
Speaker 1: it's like the complaint we've had about like cruise movies.
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Speaker 1: We're like, that's not a room you would get on
8:58
Speaker 1: a cruise ship, right, Yeah, But I could see a
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Speaker 1: situation where the train the week before Christmas has got
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Speaker 1: some decore on it. The fact that they're calling it
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Speaker 1: the Christmas train. You know, that probably doesn't actually exist,
9:12
Speaker 1: but yeah, I could see some seasonal dick happening. My
9:15
Speaker 1: only other like is that I did appreciate that we
9:20
Speaker 1: are two leads. Ellie and Tom are like growing up people.
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Speaker 1: You know, they're dealing with careers. It's not just like
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Speaker 1: this random couple that meets. Right, they like have history.
9:35
Speaker 1: They have history, and they've both lived a life and
9:38
Speaker 1: have found relationships that don't work to find my way
9:41
Speaker 1: back to what they had. Yeah, I like that. Homework
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Speaker 1: doesn't explore that enough to me, you know, especially this
9:51
Speaker 1: is a Hall of Fame movie. This is when you
9:52
Speaker 1: can really get into it. You know. We always have
9:55
Speaker 1: like these couples, who that was my high school boyfriend
9:59
Speaker 1: and then we reconnect and whatever, right, sure, like we
10:03
Speaker 1: don't really get like, oh we were together, we were
10:06
Speaker 1: in it and then broke up and then you know, anyway,
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Speaker 1: So I like that we got a little they were
10:13
Speaker 1: a little more grown up. Yeah, I agree with that,
10:16
Speaker 1: and to the point of these two characters. If I
10:19
Speaker 1: may just talk about the casting, I mean stunning casting.
10:22
Speaker 1: I love Dermat Maroney. My Best Friend's Wedding is one
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Speaker 1: of my top two favorite movies of all time. I
10:27
Speaker 1: adore him, Kimberly Williams, Danny Gulover, Joan Cusack felt like
10:33
Speaker 1: a big get in this movie. Yeah, I have a
10:36
Speaker 1: lot to say about it, but they're in my wishes.
10:38
Speaker 1: Oh no, I just I enjoyed the casting of them.
10:42
Speaker 1: I feel a little bad for Danny Glover in this role,
10:44
Speaker 1: but I think Derma and Kimberley were very well cast.
10:49
Speaker 1: I agree with that. My final like is I could
10:54
Speaker 1: imagine this being in your wishes. The set design went
10:57
Speaker 1: a long way to making me feel like we were
10:59
Speaker 1: on a moving train. I watched an interview with Dermott
11:03
Speaker 1: where he was talking about like they filmed on moving trains.
11:07
Speaker 1: They filmed on stay sharing trains, but the vast majority
11:09
Speaker 1: of it was filmed on a sound stage, and they
11:12
Speaker 1: used we would just use the term green screen, but
11:15
Speaker 1: like rear projection outside the windows to make it look
11:18
Speaker 1: like you were on a moving train. Hu and they
11:21
Speaker 1: were using that while they were filming. That wasn't something
11:25
Speaker 1: added in post production. Interesting and so he's like for us,
11:28
Speaker 1: He's like, you kind of got like a little carset
11:30
Speaker 1: because you can see these things like, oh, whizzing by
11:32
Speaker 1: the windows. So I thought that was interesting. I like
11:35
Speaker 1: that little bit of detail, but it felt like we're
11:37
Speaker 1: on a train. And there were a couple moments like
11:39
Speaker 1: looking out the window, you're like, yeah, of course that
11:40
Speaker 1: looks a little hokey, but for the most part it
11:44
Speaker 1: was giving moving train vibes for me, although I do
11:46
Speaker 1: have a train in the snow. Did you see that? Oh,
11:52
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break and come back for Wendy's
11:55
Speaker 1: laundry list of wishes. They now, all right, Wendy, Okay,
12:08
Speaker 1: let me start off. I think this cast is fantastic.
12:12
Speaker 1: On paper, they are fantastic. It is honestly what had
12:16
Speaker 1: me most excited going into this movie. I think that
12:18
Speaker 1: is probably when we were selecting our movies we were
12:21
Speaker 1: gonna do. I was like, Hey, that's a killer cast. Yes,
12:24
Speaker 1: I want to watch that movie, but I think they
12:27
Speaker 1: deserved a better movie. Oh no, I thought Dermott, mulroney
12:33
Speaker 1: and Kimberly Williams. They make me believe that Tom and
12:38
Speaker 1: Eleanor have this complicated history. But I never reached a
12:42
Speaker 1: point where I felt like I was desperately hoping that
12:45
Speaker 1: they would get back together. I was like, oh, this
12:47
Speaker 1: is this is her person or this is his person.
12:51
Speaker 1: And when Tom's fiance shows up, like it gets even
12:54
Speaker 1: kind of murkier because he's about to kiss Ellie in
12:59
Speaker 1: that Yes, Tom's got a chick. Yeah, you know, it's
13:05
Speaker 1: like it's one of the things that we hate about
13:07
Speaker 1: some of these movies. Right, I thought Danny Glover was good.
13:13
Speaker 1: I also thought, do you know Ron Oliver directed this right?
13:18
Speaker 1: And if you follow Ron Oliver on Instagram, like he
13:20
Speaker 1: has a certain genessequa about him. Yes, And I was like,
13:25
Speaker 1: was that the direction for for Danny Glover's character a
13:29
Speaker 1: little bit? You know, I'm very dressed up, very kind
13:31
Speaker 1: of a man of the scene, you know, Like, yeah,
13:34
Speaker 1: I thought if I wonder how much was you know,
13:37
Speaker 1: art imitating life lover whatever? I loved Joan Cusack and
13:41
Speaker 1: I agree with you, this is a big get. But
13:43
Speaker 1: I thought, like they barely let her do anything in
13:46
Speaker 1: this movie except for half like you know, these quirky reactions.
13:50
Speaker 1: I love when we find out at the end that
13:52
Speaker 1: she's to train Marshall tell me that, like in the
13:55
Speaker 1: first part of the movie, hmmm, it would have made
13:59
Speaker 1: more sense than her just kind of like creeping around. Yeah,
14:03
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what the freak is Tom? He was
14:06
Speaker 1: looking for her, but he goes into her room and
14:08
Speaker 1: he finds like he goes, are you the thief? What
14:10
Speaker 1: are you doing in this woman's room. Dude. Yeah, yeah,
14:13
Speaker 1: that was weird. I didn't like that he walked in
14:14
Speaker 1: there and like looked at her pictures and stuff. Yeah.
14:17
Speaker 1: I thought like her son was going to turn out
14:19
Speaker 1: to be dead by the way, O awful. Well she
14:23
Speaker 1: only has a picture of him as a young child.
14:27
Speaker 1: Oh and she's like, I'm going to visit my son.
14:29
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh she it was grave. I thought it
14:33
Speaker 1: was sweet that he came in. Yeah, I thought it
14:34
Speaker 1: was great. I was worried about I thought that was sweet.
14:37
Speaker 1: But like, we never fully what's the word I'm looking for,
14:41
Speaker 1: We never dig deeper into these characters. Or she could
14:46
Speaker 1: have been that role could been played by anybody. Yeah anybody,
14:51
Speaker 1: me just kidding, not me. Also, my other biggest wish
14:58
Speaker 1: is that we got a Hall of Fame cast. But
15:01
Speaker 1: this movie is not Hall of Fame quality. Wow. And
15:07
Speaker 1: this is why I say this because I've been disappointed
15:11
Speaker 1: last week. I was disappointed with Christmas with Holly too,
15:14
Speaker 1: because in my opinion, the Hall of Fame movies are spectacular.
15:19
Speaker 1: The ones that we watch that are not Christmas themed
15:23
Speaker 1: were three out of four great. The Christmas ones are
15:28
Speaker 1: falling short for me. Interesting, this one stands Above Christmas
15:33
Speaker 1: with Holly for me, really, oh yeah, yeah, I loved it. Now,
15:38
Speaker 1: this to me, I mean, you're entitled to your opinion,
15:41
Speaker 1: but this, to me falls more into like regular Hallmark.
15:47
Speaker 1: Oh movie that just was elevated for me. But maybe
15:52
Speaker 1: it's just the actors. Well that's what I think. I'm like,
15:55
Speaker 1: you have these incredible actors in a very typical Hallmark movie. Well,
16:02
Speaker 1: and for what it's worth, the writers of this movie,
16:06
Speaker 1: they do have Hallmark credits. The tons of them wrote
16:11
Speaker 1: the Reluctant Royal last year, Oh Love Strikes Twice, you
16:15
Speaker 1: had me at Aloha the Christmas Doctor right before you know.
16:19
Speaker 1: But there are a ton Flower Shark Mystery, Flower Shot Mysteries,
16:24
Speaker 1: Oh Love on the Air. I love that movie. I
16:28
Speaker 1: love that movie so much too. It makes sense that
16:32
Speaker 1: it feels that way to you because these writers have
16:35
Speaker 1: definitely played in the Hallmark movie standbox. These aren't just
16:38
Speaker 1: like TV movie writers like these are very much Hallmark
16:41
Speaker 1: style TV writers. Yeah yeah, and of course they're adapting
16:47
Speaker 1: the book, yes for the screen. Right. Do you want
16:51
Speaker 1: me to continue or do you want to share some
16:52
Speaker 1: of yours? I'll share a couple. I want to just
16:56
Speaker 1: expand on Tom being in a relationship, like he should
16:59
Speaker 1: have handle that. I know he's on his way to
17:01
Speaker 1: break up with her, the relationship is already over, but again,
17:05
Speaker 1: I think you should have handled it before he's like
17:07
Speaker 1: about to kiss Ellie or be like, here's the situation.
17:10
Speaker 1: Just lay it out for her. Just be like I
17:12
Speaker 1: didn't want to break up with her over the phone.
17:14
Speaker 1: I wanted to do her, you know, the courtesy of
17:17
Speaker 1: having a conversation with her, but also like something's happening
17:21
Speaker 1: here and I don't want to go there until I
17:24
Speaker 1: think there's a clean break. I know that's not romantic,
17:28
Speaker 1: but I would appreciate that conversation if I were in
17:31
Speaker 1: this situation totally. The other thing is there are several
17:35
Speaker 1: moments throughout this movie where there's like a little bit
17:38
Speaker 1: like one when Laliah arrives and he's like, she's acting
17:45
Speaker 1: so out of character and then like lets it go. Yeah,
17:48
Speaker 1: Another when the bride makes a comment like, oh, my
17:52
Speaker 1: parents got married on a train and Ellie's like, I
17:53
Speaker 1: thought it was your grandparent. She's like, oh, oh I
17:55
Speaker 1: forgot or I got like so caught up or whatever,
17:58
Speaker 1: and then they let it go and there's all these
18:00
Speaker 1: hints that something's going on, but they keep letting them go.
18:04
Speaker 1: And I think in life, if you're me, you don't
18:09
Speaker 1: let those things go. You're like, why is that happening?
18:11
Speaker 1: That's you obsessed about them? It is, yes, and they're
18:14
Speaker 1: just willing to be like this all right and move on,
18:16
Speaker 1: ever and move on. Yeah, let's talk about the surprise
18:22
Speaker 1: twist at the end. Well, I started to think when
18:25
Speaker 1: we get the reveal, right, and I imagine, well, honestly,
18:31
Speaker 1: I read IMDb and people were like that was so clever.
18:34
Speaker 1: Like I was left thinking, are we just living in
18:38
Speaker 1: a simulation? Is everything manufactured and orchestrated around us? Like
18:43
Speaker 1: I was really unhappy about it. I've it's like one
18:47
Speaker 1: of those like movies where like the story ends and
18:50
Speaker 1: then I woke up and like, some people love that.
18:53
Speaker 1: I'm not one of those people. I would have been
18:56
Speaker 1: pissed in real life. If I was dupe in this situation,
19:01
Speaker 1: I would have been questioning everything was the train Marshall
19:04
Speaker 1: reeal because the wedding couple wasn't real? Was this real?
19:09
Speaker 1: Was that not real? I hated all of it. And
19:12
Speaker 1: then you have like Max the director, being like, oh,
19:16
Speaker 1: he just easily explains it all. Oh, he wants Eleanor
19:22
Speaker 1: to have like her happy ending or whatever, and he
19:24
Speaker 1: just did some digging and found out that Tom was
19:26
Speaker 1: going to be on the train, and then he manufacted
19:27
Speaker 1: what what? Yeah, that's my one of my biggest issues
19:32
Speaker 1: is how did we make this happen? Like maybe Eleanor
19:34
Speaker 1: has mentioned Tom, but she has she mentioned him like
19:36
Speaker 1: by his first and last name. And how in the
19:39
Speaker 1: world did you find out that this man was traveling
19:41
Speaker 1: on this train on this date, like he kind of
19:45
Speaker 1: seems to be like a loaner. How would you get
19:47
Speaker 1: that information backing into the Amtrak information? And then how
19:51
Speaker 1: did you find out about Laliah and get her on
19:54
Speaker 1: like that? It's too many leaps to make all of
19:59
Speaker 1: these people who you I did not know, right right,
20:03
Speaker 1: That's what I did not like about it. Now, I
20:06
Speaker 1: did read a review that somebody said the book is excellent, oh,
20:10
Speaker 1: and that the author spends a lot of time like
20:14
Speaker 1: developing characters, And I thought, oh, that might be interesting,
20:18
Speaker 1: Like this might be a book that I would be
20:20
Speaker 1: interested in listening to because that's how I consume books.
20:24
Speaker 1: And maybe we get a ton more of explanation. I
20:28
Speaker 1: mean that's every book, right. They have time for that
20:30
Speaker 1: character development that you don't have time for in an
20:33
Speaker 1: eighty minute movie. And that's why the book is usually
20:36
Speaker 1: better because it just goes deeper with these stories. Agree.
20:40
Speaker 1: So I'm like, well, maybe it's much better in its
20:42
Speaker 1: original form because this is not working for me at all. Yeah.
20:48
Speaker 1: And you know, back to Tom, like you talked about
20:51
Speaker 1: like he seems kind of a loner. I've never really
20:54
Speaker 1: fully understood like why he's on this train. Is he
20:57
Speaker 1: looking for a story, like he's what's happening here? Yeah?
21:01
Speaker 1: Because his dad rode the Christmas train too? No, because
21:08
Speaker 1: his what's the deal? Mark Twain was gonna write a
21:11
Speaker 1: story from a train and never did, and so his
21:14
Speaker 1: dad wanted him to be the one who did it. Okay,
21:18
Speaker 1: I have two more wishes. When Tom decides that he's
21:21
Speaker 1: gonna go like on skis or snowshoeing to like go
21:25
Speaker 1: get help, right, Ellie's like, yeah, I'm gonna go with you,
21:28
Speaker 1: and and he's like, no, I gotta do it. You know,
21:32
Speaker 1: he's like worried about her safety. And then at one
21:34
Speaker 1: point Max is worried about her safety. I'm like this
21:36
Speaker 1: lady covered wars for a living, and I'm sure she seriously.
21:39
Speaker 1: I'm like, stop treating her with these kid gloves. She's
21:43
Speaker 1: fully capable. I was so annoyed when chivalry crosses over
21:47
Speaker 1: into misogyny. Yeah, exactly, exactly, and then the last thing
21:52
Speaker 1: I wished for at the top of this movie. I
21:54
Speaker 1: don't know if she noticed the soundtrack this. This is
21:57
Speaker 1: one of the things that really bothers me most about
21:59
Speaker 1: Homework movie, and it has They haven't done it a
22:03
Speaker 1: lot lately, but every beat comes with like a simple
22:07
Speaker 1: crash or some sort of like ding or whatever, like
22:11
Speaker 1: this is important. Pay attention to this. I cannot stand it.
22:15
Speaker 1: I hate it, hate it, hate it. All right, well,
22:18
Speaker 1: let's move on to digit See that got me to start. Sure, okay,
22:23
Speaker 1: I have a few to run through. One. Ellie's wearing
22:25
Speaker 1: jeans at the wedding. You're telling me a girlfriend didn't
22:27
Speaker 1: pack one single nicer outfit that she could have thrown
22:29
Speaker 1: on for the wedding. Notice as made of honor. I
22:33
Speaker 1: know it's the holidays you don't have. I mean, I
22:35
Speaker 1: wore jeans a Christmas too, Let's be serious, But I
22:38
Speaker 1: find it hard to believe she didn't have one nicer outfit.
22:41
Speaker 1: I know she didn't have the Max Powers eight suitcases situation. Right. Also,
22:45
Speaker 1: the whole thing was like, we're gonna get married on
22:47
Speaker 1: the train. Our grandparents got married on the train. They
22:50
Speaker 1: get married in the train station. Oh, they do not
22:52
Speaker 1: get married on the train. Oh look at you. And
22:55
Speaker 1: I know because Max Powers like steps in and he's like,
22:57
Speaker 1: I'm going to plan this wedding for you, blah blah blah.
23:00
Speaker 1: And then of course that's all orchestrated too. But again,
23:02
Speaker 1: they don't get married on the train. We have some
23:06
Speaker 1: Hallmark keep saying ornament and product placement. I did not
23:10
Speaker 1: notice during the tree decorating, they like take it out
23:12
Speaker 1: of the box, they hold it up. It's a whole thing.
23:15
Speaker 1: And my final did you see that they're all freezing
23:18
Speaker 1: on the train, and like we see them holding these
23:20
Speaker 1: tiny blankets. Yo, there's a train full of beds. Go
23:23
Speaker 1: take the bedding off of the beds and use that.
23:29
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that is a new fear unlocked, freezing
23:32
Speaker 1: to death and a train. Well snow, I gotta tell you,
23:35
Speaker 1: I really want to take like a three or four
23:38
Speaker 1: day train ride. You got me to go on a cruise.
23:41
Speaker 1: I don't know you can get me to go on
23:42
Speaker 1: a train. I mean a train feels like I mean,
23:46
Speaker 1: I guess bad things happen on trains too. Mm hmm, Okay,
23:52
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about it. The sweeping overhead
23:56
Speaker 1: shots of the train winding through the snowy mountains looks
23:59
Speaker 1: like a Ristmas village display to me, It is so fake.
24:03
Speaker 1: And then like when everybody's like watching out the window
24:06
Speaker 1: as Tom and Ellie like arrive on covered wagon. Yeah,
24:14
Speaker 1: there's yeah, like what the everybody's in this one train
24:17
Speaker 1: car watching like out the window. I know, it's silly, silly,
24:22
Speaker 1: it's silly. And then you did talk about it like
24:26
Speaker 1: the little scenes like they're little breadcrumbs along the way,
24:31
Speaker 1: about the clues of things not adding up. Yeah, now,
24:35
Speaker 1: hindsight's twenty twenty. If I were to go back and
24:38
Speaker 1: rewatch this movie through the lens of like there's this
24:40
Speaker 1: big twist coming at the end, maybe I might be
24:44
Speaker 1: find myself, you know, enjoying it more to like find
24:49
Speaker 1: those little nuggets. But I just felt so duped. Yeah,
24:55
Speaker 1: I don't like not being in on the joke, and
24:58
Speaker 1: so I would have been so eery if I was
25:01
Speaker 1: Tom and Ellie, especially Ellie honestly, because how do you
25:05
Speaker 1: trust that manage your boss? And yes, exactly exact. I
25:09
Speaker 1: don't like that. I don't like it at all. What
25:11
Speaker 1: did you rate this movie? Don't get mad? I rate
25:13
Speaker 1: it at three point seven five stars. I gave it
25:16
Speaker 1: two stars. Whoa justice for the Christmas Train? Hey, send
25:21
Speaker 1: your emails to Hello at Girls Gone Hamewark. Thank you
25:25
Speaker 1: for listening to this episode of Girls Gone Homemark. Will
25:28
Speaker 1: be back next week with more Homemark reviews. Goodbye bye.
25:43
Speaker 1: All right friends, before we go, just a quick heads up,
25:45
Speaker 1: you're about to hear some ads. These little gems help
25:48
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