Home for the Holidays
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Movie Reviews of Home for the Holidays
Movie Review: Home 5 Stars
Ahhh the holidays....that wonderful time of thankfulness, love and laughter, NOT!!! This movie will have you in stitches each and every holiday season if you suffer from that ever present disease of dysfunctional family syndrome.Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) is wallowing in self-pity for good reason, she was fired from her job, her daughter is about to have sex for the first time and she is traveling back home for the holidays. What more could a girl ask for, a cold? She arrives to a snowy existence and a family of little understanding. Her father Henry (Charles Durning) and her mother Adele (Anne Bancroft) are seemingly oblivious to all of the turmoil they have created and that now resides within their children. Soon the house is filled with love and lots of arguments! Gay brother Tommy Larson (Robert Downey Jr.) appears to torture the entire clan with mischief and in tow he has a co-worker/friend, Leo Fish (Dylan McDermott). And of course what family would be complete without the crazy aunt (Geraldine Chaplin) and a branch of perfection that breaks off and becomes the norm, sister Joanne (Cynthia Stevenson) and her [...] husband Walter (Steve Guttenberg). So sit back and have a toast with a perfectly normal American family for the holidays but get ready to laugh uncontrollably too!
Jodie Foster directed this film about the typical dysfunctional family during the holiday season and she brings both a sensitive understanding and a full blown sense of humor to this holiday table. Holly Hunter is really wonderful as the hopeful but often misunderstood sister in a clan of crazies. Despite his drug induced performance, Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast as the troubled brother with secrets to protect from a family that can't accept modern life. Dylan McDermott is the pretty boy of the film but offers much more than a cute mug in his role as the charming outsider. Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft are brilliant as clueless parents who are stuck in the roles they took upon themselves many years ago; both are unknowingly hilarious just like most parents who prefer to keep their eyes closed. Cynthia Stevenson is great as the perfectionist sister that seems to lurk about in every family and marries a nerd so that she can pretend to be happy. But the true scene stealer of this film has to be Geraldine Chaplin as crazy but oblivious Aunt Gladys, you cannot watch her performance and not fall on the floor in hysterics! Overall this is the perfect holiday movie to bring good cheer where little may truly exist.....after all if you can't laugh at yourself what is the point in holiday reunions, isn't that what brings us back home year after year?
Movie Review: You Can't Go Home Again for the Holidays
Summary: 5 Stars
Wry black comedy with serious undertones about a thirty-something baby boomer (Holly Hunter) returning to her childhood home over Thanksgiving. Things progress from bad to worse as she suffers through the mayhem of traveling by car and plane to a place she really doesn't want to be ... there she's reunited with her family of origin and real disaster ensues. Director Jodie Foster does a marvelous job of turning the classic Norman Rockwellian vision of the All-American family holiday inside-out and upside-down; these people are the definition of "dysfunctional"! Or maybe they're just at their worst when forced together by empty tradition; although their reunion is marked by old tensions and rivalries, observant viewers will note that Hunter and her siblings each has developed a happy and nurturing family of their own --- Hunter with her daughter; gay brother Robert Downey Jr with his partner and their many friends; uptight sister Cynthia Stevenson with her husband and kids. Those newer primary relationships, largely unglimpsed until the closing frames of the film, seem to be the hopeful idea at the heart of this funny yet wistful movie: each of us is born into a family of strangers where we learn to love; then we grow up and grow apart; finally we form our own families ... and the cycle begins again.By turns hysterically funny and then bittersweet and poignant, this little gem is played to perfection by its talented cast. Anne Bancroft's comedic timing has never been sharper; Geraldine Chaplin is both ridiculous and oddly sympathetic as the Aunt Who Never Married; Cynthia Stevenson is brilliant as the sister who cares more about appearances than happiness (even her own). Best of all is Downey who plays the brother with an over-the-top intensity that quietly suggests volumes about his character's struggle growing up in a town and a family where he never felt quite at home.
Highly recommended, and a film that only improves with repeated viewings. There is a lot of subtext here, some of which is easy to miss the first time through when your first reaction is almost certain to be hearty laughter. Enjoy it again, and Happy "Holidays" to you!
Movie Review: Going home again
Summary: 5 Stars
"Home for the Holidays" is a quiet, fun little film that I dust off once or twice a year (usually around Thanksgiving!) and sit back and absolutely enjoy. It's become a comfort film for me, one of honesty, predictability, and enjoyment. It's a wonder more people haven't discovered this mini-classic.Holly Hunter plays Claudia, a forty year old woman forced to endure calamity after calamity on her way to her parent's house for the Thanksgiving holiday. Hunter has her role sewn up from the moment we see her; she encapsulates Claudia and makes her very real as she is conforted with mini-nightmares. These problems plague her, only to define her life as unrealized, possibly misdirected. That Hunter refuses to play her as a sack sad, or someone pitiful, is a testament to her understanding of Claudia.
The script avoids usual the "family cliches" by showing us a dysfunctional family that functions quite well. Gay brother Tommy, so perfectly mastered by Robert Downey Jr., always the family clown, removes his "make-up" and shows incredible sensitivity when he rescues his sister from her holiday horror. Dylan McDermott charms his way quietly as Leo Fish, and you believe his sincerity towards Claudia. Cynthnia Stevenson and Steve Guttenberg rock as the high strung power couple so insistent on perfection in their imperfect lives. And the wonderful Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft as the parents, so beleaguered, so joyful, so real.
While the performances shine, the script shines even brighter, offering little solutions with much insight. You understand Claudia's trauams, but know that none of them are resolvable within a two hour film, and that's ok. Even the ending, which suggests that even daring to dream is enough, is absolutely perfect for this film. A less experienced screenwriter would have fallen into the cliche trap and wrapped everything up in a neat bow, which this film suggests, is simply not possible.
"Home for the Holidays" is a signature piece by Jodie Foster, one that people who enjoy a truly good film won't be there to pass up. I hope Foster follows up by directing more classics such as this; American cinema would be better for it.
Movie Review: I'm glad I watched it to the end.
Summary: 5 Stars
I just watched this movie for the first time. I have to admit that I thought a couple of times about stopping it in the middle, and not watching the whole thing. I was thinking to myself, "What is it that people like about movies about dysfunctional families?" Well, it kind of all comes together in the end. Or, maybe it is just that by the end you finally get the point of the movie. (In fact, the chapters of the movie are separated by titles that appear on the screen, and the last chapter is entitled: "The Point." But I didn't think about it so much when I was watching it the first time.)
Something rare happens in this movie that doesn't often happen in ensemble cast movies. Holly Hunter's character at one point says, "When you go home, do you look around and wonder, 'Who ARE these people?'" In fact, each and every member of the cast has their character's story told in depth, and we the viewers get to know "who they are." The acting is fantastic!
Indeed, I think this is what helped me get through the movie. While at points I thought it was a bit torturous to watch a dysfunctional family go through the motions of trying to get along for the holidays, it really made me think about my own life and my own family. Isn't that one of the main reasons you might enjoy a movie? There were funny moments, sad moments, contemplative moments, crazy moments, and all the other kinds of moments that make up real life.
Anyway, at the end of the movie, when it gets to people thinking about their lives, it really made me think about my own life and my own family. I believe that this is why I really liked the movie. And I will definitely watch it again.
Watching the movie a second time with the commentary by Jodie Foster was as much fun, if not funner, than watching the movie the first time. She explains many of the parts of the movie that I didn't stop and think about the first time I watched it. I wonder exactly how autobiographical the movie really is for her.
Movie Review: "What's the point?" "There is no point..."
Summary: 5 Stars
Ten years after I first saw it in the theatre, I'm about to pull out my DVD for my annual screenings (almost on a continuous loop) beginning a few days before and ending a few days after Thanksgiving. Who needs the Thanksgiving Day Parade when you can watch Home for the Holidays? This is one of my holiday favorites and a staple every year at Thanksgiving. The script is unique, the performances spot-on, and the soundtrack is classic (from Nat King Cole and Tom Jones to Rusted Root's impeccable cover of Evil Ways). The actors deliver spectacular individual performances, all of which are praiseworthy--- my favorite may be Robert Downey Jr's outstanding portrayal of brother Tommy, which may be my favorite role of his in any movie, Chaplin notwithstanding--- right down to the smallest roles of the beleaguered co-passengers in the airport. This movie, above all, makes me feel that our modern American family, however wacky they may be, however much our parents make us nuts, is really just that--- the modern American family. And it's okay to be wacky, because family (however it's defined) is just that. And we love them and they love us. The movie makes a point of asking "What's the point?" several times, only to be told there is none. But the point is that we keep our sense of humor, we love our family, and we accept that we'll probably never understand them-- or they us. Just have fun, have some turkey, and have some love.
I love this movie. It makes a great pairing with Love Actually as Thanksgiving ends and Christmas begins, if you want to keep smiling and feel the holiday love. Happy holidays!