The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
Holiday Hijinks and Heartstrings: Eloise's Christmas Mission
Surprise announcements and holiday hijinks take center stage as Katy returns to the podcast with some major life news before we dive into the festive world of "Eloise at Christmastime." This made-for-TV holiday film stars Julie Andrews alongside a precocious young protagonist who's determined to play cupid at The Plaza Hotel during the Christmas season.
We explore the fascinating dynamic between Eloise and her enabling nanny (played by Andrews), presenting a stark contrast to the disciplined caretaker roles Andrews portrayed in classics like Mary Poppins. Both hosts find themselves charmed by the film's festive atmosphere and heartwarming moments, while questioning some of the messaging around children disregarding rules and authority figures. The discussion touches on how children's movies often position adults as incompetent while glorifying questionable behavior when it leads to positive outcomes.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn when addressing the film's jarring tonal shift—a moment where the antagonist crosses a line that feels out of place in family entertainment. Despite these concerns, we ultimately award the film a respectable 3/5 for Christmas spirit and 3.5/5 overall, acknowledging its charm while recognizing it won't become a holiday staple for either host. Whether you're a fan of Julie Andrews, curious about this Plaza-set Christmas tale, or simply looking for a holiday film that flies under the radar, our discussion offers insights into what makes this movie both endearing and occasionally problematic. Stay tuned for our Cinema Sunday reviews of "Smurfs" and the reboot of "I Know What You Did Last Summer."
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On the couch. We're laughing, crying, feeling it all, Breaking down the big screen, the hits and the flaws. Grab your seat, press play, let's take the pic. Lights, camera action, it's the Couch Critic.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Couch Critic. I'm your host, nathan, and on today's episode she's back everyone, my good friend Katie Hi, katie.
Speaker 3:How are you? I'm good.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry I've been out of commission, it's because I'm pregnant.
Speaker 1:No, you're not.
Speaker 2:Yes, I am no, you're not Yep no.
Speaker 3:What's up?
Speaker 2:Are you for reals?
Speaker 3:I'm for real. Yep Got a little baby growing in there and it's a boy, I know. I wish you guys could see nathan's face right now. He's like she lies, so much is this true or not such a good liar yes, nathan is in fact true. I'm 14 weeks today. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, it's been a long time coming. So there you go, consider this my official 14 weeks today. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, it's been a long time coming. So there you go, consider this my official public announcement.
Speaker 2:That's great and everybody else knows. So, like if they're listening to this, they're going to be like why?
Speaker 3:did you tell us? If they don't know, they know now. I have told my family members. Well, that's good, there we go um yeah I'm excited, so that's what's going on in my life, and I've been mostly sick at night instead of morning sickness, but, and now I have a cold. So that on top of all that but it did make it fun to you know talk to my son about it and tell him he's gonna be a big brother that's awesome yay I'm so pumped.
Speaker 3:I'm so pumped, I know I know you, I'm sure you are, because, yeah, that's awesome that's great news, it's it's probably better news than this movie we're going to review, but we do have to review it because, talking about this movie was cute, okay it was cute, it was fine let's let's you know congratulations.
Speaker 2:That was awesome, but let's get down to business. We're talking about another Christmas movie called Eloise at Christmas Time. This is based on, I guess, the popular children's book Eloise at the Plaza, about a little girl who gets you said I guess, like it's not tocked off at a plaza by her mother.
Speaker 3:It is. It is a famous book from like the 50s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they made two TV movies out of this story, and this is the second one, so let's just go ahead and do the synopsis. A six-year-old girl tries to reunite a young woman with a former boyfriend before she marries another Eloise at Christmast time. Stars Julie Andrews, which I thought was awesome, sophia Vasilevia as Eloise, kenneth Welsh as Sir Wilkes and Deborah Monk as Maggie, as well as, like you know those people that you're like? Hey, I know that person from that. I know that person from that thing. You know, there's a couple of those people. There's actually two people from the Grinch.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I was remembering that.
Speaker 2:Mayor Mayhew and what's her name?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the lady, the lady that he wants to be with. I totally was like I know her from the Grinch. Yeah, you're right, those are like the faces. You're like I know you, but I don't really know where I know you from.
Speaker 2:And little fun fact, since we like to do trivia, even though I haven't done it in a while the Eloise girl who plays a six-year-old was actually 10 years old at the time that she played this character, so little fun fact for you.
Speaker 3:I think she pulled it off well, yeah, well. I say that I do feel like they portrayed her like some of the things she was saying and doing and thinking, six, you know, being that I have a four and a half year old, you have a five year old. I'm like duh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little, probably a little too. A little bit too sophisticated for a typical six-year-old, like some of the ideas she was coming up with were more like older yeah, maybe I'd give her like seven, seven, right yeah anyway, it's cuter when they're six.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it wasn't. It was a cute movie, nathan, and I was surprised julie andrews did it how random. Except she's a kind of weird character and I didn't like her voice she had.
Speaker 2:I thought she was fantastic. Anything Julie Andrews is in is fantastic to me, and this is the third time that she teamed up with the director. So he directed Eloise at the Plaza Eloise at Christmastime and then he directed her in Enchanted. So that's another little fun fact for you right there. So yeah, I thought Julie Andrews was fantastic, because you know she's Julie Andrews. I just thought it was a cute little movie. It made me smile, it did make me have like the Christmas feels as I was watching it. I thought it was great, but apparently it sounds like you're going to have lot more to say, like on the negative side no, I mean, I agree with you, I watched it.
Speaker 3:I didn't watch it with my kid, which I think was a good choice. I did think it was very cute. I mean it's very clever. I liked the storyline, I liked getting to. You know, she's sort of solving a mystery and you've got all these characters and you want to find out how everything all ties together and you can kind of guess it. But I did think it was a very, very cute movie and it was funny and it did make you smile and it's very goofy and silly, and I guess my negative, though, would be just her as a person.
Speaker 3:I'm like everyone just accepts that she's a brat and she ruins everything because she's just done one good thing. I don't know, I don't want my kid watching that movie. I guess is what I'm saying. She is rude and she doesn't listen to anyone. It's kind of like when you watch Lilo and Stitch. My son was acting like Stitch after the movie. I don't want my child to watch this and be like okay, eloise is who I can act like, as long as she got I mean, the whole movie is basically her getting what she wants. In the end, what she felt like was a good idea what because?
Speaker 2:apparently the six-year-old is smarter than everybody else well, you mean, like what we're about to spoil right now, and that her mother comes home for christmas.
Speaker 3:That's what she wanted, more than well, no, she wanted the couple to get together and I'm just because the other guy was a jerk he was, he was I, just I want her to do so respecting authority I didn't see her.
Speaker 2:I mean I didn't see her really as a brat. I mean I okay, again, she's playing a six-year-old. So I mean there's Six-year-olds don't really listen that well. I mean, like you said before, I have a five-year-old and I know for a fact that they don't listen and you have to tell them multiple times hey, just hold on a second, I'm talking to somebody else. And that happens multiple times in the movie. Yes, but this movie glorifies that.
Speaker 3:This movie's like, oh, it's kind of like Moana, when her dad's like, don't do that, and she's like, well, thank God I didn't listen to you, because I saved the day because I didn't listen. This is the same thing. She doesn't do anything the adults are asking her to do and then like, thank God she didn't Cause if she hadn't, the whole thing would have been ruined. Thank goodness. She ignored everyone's rules and didn't listen to authority and was like kind of ruining things, like being a jerk to the secretary and torturing people and ruining things for people. So I'm like, yes, and she has some heart right, like I did think it was very sweet how she kind of turns.
Speaker 3:She's got this really mean old lady that just like can't stand living next to her, which I would. I would be that old lady. I don't want to live next to this girl. I'm just saying and I'm pretty, I'm pretty crazy myself, like she'd be way too much, but I love how they have a moment where she kind of gets a soft side for this old lady and takes care of her. So she has a sweet. I guess my main point is I don't want to feel like all of her behavior is acceptable just because her heart is kind.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can see what you're saying, but as a movie, to your point, as a movie, just watching it. It is cute, it is fun, it's funny. I liked all the characters.
Speaker 2:It's like one of the movies that you don't overthink. It's like what you said with Moana. Technically, her father was wrong and moana was correct, and it is a good thing that she went after her own dreams, even though her father was like, hey, don't go off yeah, on the island.
Speaker 3:He's like let me disrespect my authority figure and not listen to you, you dumb, dumb anyway. So I'm just not into that kind of culture where it's like oh, you adults, you don't know, you know, only I know like you're all dumber than me and they tend to do that a lot with those types of like movies and tv shows, like when the kid is supposed to be the star of the show.
Speaker 3:All the adults are usually dumb and they don't that's fair and I guess and if you're a kid you're like this is awesome yeah I, I did like that and I'm glad that everyone ended up together.
Speaker 3:They made the bad guy truly bad like that. Maybe another. It's not a huge dislike, but it went over the top. So again, this is a little bit of a spoiler, but at one point the guy that you know you don't, he's sort of the bad guy he like kidnaps her, throws her over his shoulder and locks her in a closet. And there's no follow-up from that, like she doesn't even tell, she's not even like. Hey, by the way, this guy locked me in a closet.
Speaker 2:She doesn't mention the fact that, well, and here's the thing, like I think, some of the stuff she's about to reveal, and then it just reveals itself. So it's kind of like, why did she go through all that stuff, finding all this stuff out, when she didn't even she wasn't even the one who ended up telling everybody about it?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, anyway. It's just like, is that gonna come up later? Like that that you kidnapped a sick and it just. I think the other thing that bothers me is this guy you're supposed to be like oh, he's kind of a crook and he's kind of corrupt and he's trying to abuse this girl for money. Like that bad guy I'm on board with. That's a kids movie bad guy Kidnapping a child and locking them in the closet, like that just took his villain level, like way, Like it just feels out of character, Like yes, he's the bad guy, but it just went to like DEFCON, Like I don't expect the guy that they're portraying the whole movie just all of a sudden throw a child over his shoulder and lock her up.
Speaker 3:That's just too much.
Speaker 2:I mean, in a movie like Home Alone, where the guys are trying to break inside a house the whole time and do really bad things, you're not surprised when they threaten to kill the kid. But in this very cheery, gung-ho kind of it was very much a kid. It had the kid feel to it.
Speaker 3:but, like you said, then it comes out of nowhere with a guy who, yeah, locks her in a in a yeah, I mean, even if they had just been like oh yeah, he could have like, instead of that, he could have like locked her in a room, but like the fact that they just he throws her over his shoulder and takes her to the base, it's like, oh my gosh, it's gotten dark really fast.
Speaker 2:I think, all that being said, though All that slightly demented moments of the movie, I still I found myself enjoying it and, like you, I didn't watch it with my kids either. So I don't know, I don't know if my son would probably pay attention to it, but I think my daughter might pay attention to it. But some of the content in it, like it's very, you know, like bringing a couple together. I mean, there's some stuff in it that I think they might enjoy. But I enjoyed it. I thought it was cute. It's a movie I'd never seen before. So, again, I do appreciate the fact that this list is allowing me to watch movies I've never seen. But is there anything else you liked or didn't like about this movie? Because I already basically I already said what I was going to say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I thought the girl did a good job acting, but she was a bit. I think the way she presented her is what gave her the bratty like how she sang her lines felt bratty, like I'm smart, like it's that very? Like well, I na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na kind of voice and I'm like I think they could have pulled off the more home alone type kid who's just like very smart and putting things together, minus the attitude. So I feel like she had came across a little bit of attitude some. But another good thing I would say is I thought it was funny.
Speaker 3:So her nanny, which is Julia Andrews, is Julia Andrews is like does not have any rules. Like you know why this girl's a brat? Because this nanny's just straight up like egging it on. Like I thought that was funny. Like rule, this child rolls the roost. She's basically the nanny's boss. Like the nanny barely has any. She has zero discipline, which is also funny, comparing and contrasting like sound of music version of the nanny or mary poppins I mean julian, there you go, she just plays the perpetual nanny, I guess yeah, and I mean the eloise character also reminds me of fancy nancy.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've ever seen that show, but I'm pretty sure fancy nancy is supposed to be like six, five or six years old. So I mean, the character isn't out of the norm of what you would see like that age of a child being played in a movie or cartoon or TV.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess, especially one who lives in a plaza and her mother's in Paris, like, I guess, here. Who am I to say? Well, of course, this child's a brat Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean she's left alone all the time and so. But yeah, so all that.
Speaker 3:I did, I did, I think I would have rated it well. I'm curious what your thoughts are on Christmas feel, because it's definitely centered around Christmas, but would you call it a classic?
Speaker 2:See, it is centered around Christmas. It takes place during Christmas, the end of the movie is Christmas, but I wouldn't say it 100% felt like a Christmas movie. It's one of those that you could say you know, you take Christmas out of it, would it still feel like whatever? And obviously it would, because there's Eloise at the plaza. I've never seen it, but I'm assuming it's very similar to what this is. It just doesn't take place.
Speaker 3:That's Nathan. That's literally what I was just about to say. Say, I watched the trailer for the other one because I wanted to know which one came out first. And the trailer it's almost a verbatim movie, like it's the same, exact. She has the same interactions with every character, like same little thing with event coordinator, same little thing with the elevator guy, same little thing with the guy the bellman, and it's all the same shtick. So yeah, it really does emphasize how there's nothing christmas about it. It's just like the christmas version was just the same thing again, but with christmas on top yeah, so let's go ahead and give our christmas rating for eloise.
Speaker 2:At christmas time, what would you give this Christmas rating?
Speaker 3:I'm going to give it a three out of five and again, that's because it's like you guys just did the same thing, but try to make more money by making a sequel. And the other reason being I don't feel like I'm in the Christmas spirit. Right, I'm not like more giving and family's important. I mean, yeah, her mom shows up at the end, but that's such a small part. I didn't feel like the spirit of Christmas came across.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was hoping that she would actually show up on Christmas Eve, like she said she was going. But yeah, I would give it a three probably as well, because basically the exact same reasons you said it didn't give me that warm Christmas feeling. But it does take place during Christmas. So there's that. And for general rating, what would you give this movie?
Speaker 3:I'd give it a three and a half, which is a positive rating, but still not one that I'm like. Oh, I can't wait to watch this with my son.
Speaker 2:You know, I think this is the first time that we will agree on both Christmas and general rating.
Speaker 3:It could be Might be.
Speaker 2:Because I'm going to give it a 3.5 as well. It's mostly because I just love the fact that Julie Andrews is in this, because, you know, she seems like one of those people that doesn't care about looking silly and playing this kind of character, and so I appreciate that. I love you, julie Andrews. If you're listening, I love you, julie Andrews. So that is our thoughts on Eloise at Christmastime, and it was a fun movie.
Speaker 3:So this cinema, what was that accent movie? So this Cinema, what was that accent? It's?
Speaker 2:President of Julie Andrews. Oh, maybe she wasn't, but anyway. So this Cinema Sunday, I'm going to be doing a double feature. I'm going to be talking about Smurfs, which I actually already saw, but I'm not going to tell you what I thought about it and the reboot of I Know what you Did Last Summer. And then next Tuesday, either me or Katie and me, or Mitch and me, or somebody else and me are going to be talking about Jouel Noël. It's not a French movie, but the title seems French, so we'll see what that's all about. Again. It's a movie I've never seen before, and it will be our last episode of July. That means school's about to start back up again. Yay, school Can't wait.
Speaker 3:Hey, listen, that's bad for you, but for me that just means I have childcare again.
Speaker 2:There you go. All is good in the life of the couch critic, where every movie gets its close-up.
Speaker 1:It's not just a movie, it's a way of life. We'll watch it together, day or night, so settle in close and don't miss a flick. This is the moment for the couch critic.
