Home for the Holidays (1995)

I love this movie!! I watch it again and again it is so very funny. Holly Hunter is hysterical and so is her nutty family!!! I have to watch it every thanksgiving! I just love it!! My favorite part of the movie is when Tommy Larson played by Robert Downey Jr. comes home and wakes his family. we laugh until we cry. I think it is a really funny movie . I think every one can relate to having an off the wall relative like Aunt Gladys. If you are looking for a movie that is funny and all about family this is good for a laugh. The family is funny and real I have a sister just like Joanne. The overall movie is just simply funny and to laugh at them as a family is to laugh at your self.

Fmovies: I won't bother going into too many plot details about "Home for the Holidays." That seems to be the basis of too many other reviews. Besides, the basic plot is revealed in the title!

Instead of the plot, I'd prefer to talk about the emotions generated by this movie. Don't fool yourself into thinking this is some mindless screwball comedy. Even the first few minutes of the movie lulls you into thinking it will be an evening of high-jinks. Then, somewhere along the way, you will find that your laughter has become bittersweet. This is a movie that has its viewers relive painful family memories so common in today's society.

Do yourself a favor. Watch this movie. It will stay with you. You will find yourself going back to it occasionally, just like you find yourself every few years going home for the holidays.

Review Date 6/27/2019

I have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.

All families go through transitions. Parents are getting older. Siblings resentment and how we all kind go through the motions of life without realizing seeing what is front of our own eyes.

In this film every year, Claudia (Holly Hunter) dreads her trip home for Thanksgiving. Between her parents (Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft), her sardonic brother (Robert Downey Jr.) and her overdramatic sister (Cynthia Stevenson), things are bad enough. But this year, Claudia has more reason for angst. She's lost her job and is dealing with her daughter's (Claire Danes) revelation about her sexual activities. Claudia's sister seems to think her brother and sister ran out of town leaving her stuck to take care of their aging parents.

Lots of laughs and a reality check for everyone.

Home for the Holidays fmovies. Jodie Foster managed to give us(with an outstanding ensemble of actors)a deliciously written and directed film about the tribulations of belonging to a family and the consequential heartache brought by growing apart from them as one becomes an individual. The sincerity of the script turns out to be one hell of a smash in the head to anyone that can empathize with the basic situations confronted in a typical holiday gathering. Probably the saddest part(and one that most of us who have brothers/sisters will understand) is the sudden knowledge that blood sometimes isn't enough to love somebody. The crackings in fraternal relationships are deeply touching and hard in this one, and while it is not my case, I think a mother and father will break a few tears too as the going away of children and subsequent cutting of the umbilical chord is depicted as an evident transformation that is usually more painful to the elder than to the young. The cast is magnificent, and while the film is very simple in its construction, I would avidly recommend it.

You grow older. But so does everyone else in your family. The small people who were your little brother and sister, the big people who were Mom and Dad - they all grow up and have their own lives, their own families. The world sees you as an adult with children of your own, problems that are real, concerns that completely outside and removed from this group you have known since infancy. Your family sees you as the kid who fought with your sister, and dated the class loser. And when you congregate, you realize that while your baby shoes don't fit you anymore, you're not sure what does. Neither does anyone else.

Ann Bancroft as the penultimate Mom is a jewel, pulled between her love of her family, her need to support them, her incomprehension of who they have become, and her own strong will. Robert Downey is fabulous as the manic family clown, not knowing when to stop, not knowing how to protect his closely held secret. Geraldine Chaplin steals your breath (Literally!) as the dotty maiden aunt who uses her eccentricities as a shield against the disappointments of her life. Her soliloquy is perfect. Holly Hunter is wonderful as the eldest daughter, her world in tatters around her feet, looking for and not finding comfort within the confines of her family. Cynthia Stevenson is perfect as the angry middle child, left out and feeling betrayed by her oh so much more exciting siblings. Charles Durning is the father at peace with the world and himself, wondering what all the fuss is about. And Dylan McDermott is the supreme observer, wanting to be part of their lives, looking for a way in to the circle, allowing everyone their dignity, giving them permission to laugh at their absurdities.

In spite of all this, or maybe because if it, this film is funny. It could be your own sister, your own mother. There is a wondrous joy here, a happiness that family, at least, is predictable.

Jodie Foster did an incredible job of showing the humor, drama, poignancy, frustration, love, loathing, fear, and comfort found in families. As exhausting as these two days were for this family, you know they'll be back next year. Or, as Charles Durning's character says, "There's always Christmas".

I have never written a review before, though I am frequently on IMDB, but now I think it is my duty to let prospective watchers of this movie know that it is really very good. Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr, and Anne Bancroft are all highlights. Cynthia Stevenson and Geraldine Chaplin are great too. The story is funny and smart, and Jodie Foster got most of the details right on. Rent this movie on Thanksgiving for the full effect; I do every year.