Candleshoe

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RANDY F I saw this in the theater when I first came out, and it remains one of my all-time favorites. It's not as good as the original Freaky Friday as far as Jodie Foster films go. But I do wonder how this film would have turned out if David Swift, who directed the original Parent Trap, hadn't been removed from the film. My guess is it would have pushed it a bit higher in its quality. Regardless of that, it's a terrific film, with good performances all around. Entertaining, and even a bit poignant at times, it's the kind of simple, sweet movie that seldom gets made anymore. I love it. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/21/24 Full Review Shannon C I have loved Candleshoe since I was a young girl in the 90s. I used to have my mom rent it anytime I was home sick from school or on school holidays. Young Jody Foster is great in it, the fun treasure-hunt plot, the brilliant butler and charming grandmother are all wonderful highlights! Recommended, indeed! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/29/23 Full Review David F I remember this film from my childhood when I watched it on the Disney channel. It's about a young, street-smart girl - Casey - in Los Angeles, played by Jody Foster, who gets recruited - actually it's almost more like trafficked - into helping an old con man try to rip off an old woman in England. Lady St. Edmund, the mistress of the great English country house Candleshoe, is fooled into believing Casey is her long lost daughter (or is she really?) and Casey takes up residence in Candleshoe where she tries to track down some really great clues which are thought to lead to a great treasure that Lady St. Edmund's ancestor accumulated hundreds of years ago as a pirate raiding the Spanish. The atmosphere of the declining English country house is classic Disney Anglophilia - Lady St. Edmund's fortunes are mostly spent and she has one servant left - it's David Niven! - and he pretends to be her butler, her gardener, and her best friend who comes for regular visits to make small talk over tea. A bunch of small children with no where else to go also live there and together they're barely making ends meet by selling food they've grown at a local farmers market. Casey introduces some slick American marketing to help them sell their eggs only to get robbed by the con man while going home alone in the rain. The clues pointing towards the treasure take over as the plot driver and it's an exciting and suspenseful story as we see whether the con man will get his hands on the treasure and where exactly Casey's loyalties lie. Will she help the denizens of Candleshoe save their decaying estate or help to get them evicted to make the treasure hunt go faster for the con man? This is as charming and as entertaining as Disney family entertainment gets. It's an overlooked gem. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/07/23 Full Review Audience Member An orphaned girl is found by a conman who uses her to find treasure in an English country Mansion owned by an elderly woman. Jody Foster returns for her second Disney movie as the lead and does a great job as usual. The plot took awhile to get going, but once it did I was hooked. The villains for me didn't work as well as I hoped they would. They seemed to turn really dark about halfway through the movie and I didn't like that change. The last action scene was a little over the top compared to the rest of the movie which seemed more grounded. It did have a satisfying ending! I'd recommend you give it a watch. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member Based on the Michael Innes novel Christmas at Candleshoe, this live action Disney movie is all about con artist Harry Bundage, who is looking for lost pirate treasure inside Candleshoe, the country estate of Lady St. Edmund (Helen Hayes in her last role). He gets street-smart American orphan Casey Brown (Jodie Foster) to pretend that she's the rich lady's granddaughter, who has been missing since she was four years old. The estate is actually barely holding on, except that its lone servant Priory (David Niven) and four foster kids have been hustling to pay the bills. Of course, our heroine will figure out that she really belongs at Candleshoe and stay in England, but the treasure hunt is still pretty fun. Director Norman Tokar made plenty of Disney movies like The Happiest Millionaire, The Ugly Dachsund, The Apple Dumpling Gang The Cat from Space and No Deposit, No Return, which also has Niven in the film). Foster passed up Pretty Baby to make this movie, only getting a few days off after finishing Freaky Friday. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member An endearing performance by Jody Foster in her early years as a child star up coming. The story is a bit hammy and loaded with cheese, but there is heart there at its core and good lessons to be learned in life. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Candleshoe

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