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Actors: Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Dylan McDermott, Geraldine Chaplin, Cynthia Stevenson
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Home for the Holidays |
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On the very same day single mother Claudia Larson is fired from the museum where she restores paintings, she makes out with her boss, learns her daughter is planning on having sex for the first time at the age of 16, and she leaves Chicago to go back to her parents' for Thanksgiving. She is brought back to their crazy lives, stories and problems the very minute she gets off her plane, and she knows how difficult it will be for her to spend a whole day with her family. However, when her gay brother Tommy unexpectedly shows up from Boston with a friend, Leo Fish, Claudia starts feeling better. He makes her laugh and is an ally, as opposed to her sister Joanne, who is married, has two children and feels like she is trapped in her hometown, looking after their parents, while both Claudia and Tommy escaped.
Preparation for the dinner gives Claudia the opportunity to catch up with her brother and get to know Leo better, as her mother tries to push her in the arms of one of her ex boyfriends, who gives her a pathetic account of his loneliness, while dinner itself (with two competing turkeys) makes old rivalries between the different members of this somewhat dysfunctional family resurface. Old stories are told and secrets are revealed: Aunt Gladys sings her love for Claudia's father, the whole family learns about Claudia's situation and Joanne reveals Tommy's secret marriage with boyfriend Jack. Now that it is clear Leo is not Tommy's new boyfriend, as everybody thought, a short-lived romance starts between Claudia and Leo, who has to leave the next day. But before leaving she has to try to make things right again, with her sister and with her parents.
--lea cicchiello, Resident Scholar
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This is the worst possible Thanksgiving for Claudia "Clyde" Larson (Hunter) to have to spend with her family. She just lost her job as an art restorer in a Chicago museum, she's been making out with her soon-to-be-ex-boss, she's coming down with a cold, and as her 16-year-old daughter Kitt (Clair Danes) drops her off at the airport she announces she intends to sleep with her boyfriend over the holiday break. Once at home, Clyde has to deal with her mother Adele (Bancroft) who's always trying to fix her up with a good man, her snooty sister Joanne (Stevenson), and her batty aunt Gladys (Chaplin), and her gay brother Tommy (Downey). This 1995 film, Jodie Foster's second directorial effort, is a little darker than your usual dysfunctional family holiday fare, but there's a lot of delightful acting, with Steve Guttenberg, Emily Ann Lloyd, and David Strathairn rounding out the cast.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Home for the Holidays |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Comedy, primarily
Yes
Time/era of movie:
- 1980's-1999
Family, struggling with
Yes
Struggle with:
- All family members
Kind of comedy
- dysfunctional family
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- artist
- unemployed
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
- red
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
- (woman) long straight
Body type
- (woman) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- sensitive
- happy
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- (man) short/standard straight
- (man) short/standard wavey
Body type
- (man) average build
How much in movie?
- 40%
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- unemployed
- homemaker/wife
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 40%
- 60%
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Body type
- (woman) skinny
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
- Midwest
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Movie makes you feel...
- very happy
- full of laughter
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
- Some foul language
If soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Jazz/r&b
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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