DVD Review: Home For The Holidays (B)

Home For The Holidays (1995)
Directed By Jodie Foster
Starring Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Robert Downey Jr., Charles Durning, Dylan McDermott
MPAA: PG-13
Grade: B

Review by Scott Standish

Home For The Holidays is a smart, unpretentious romantic comedy that is about as good as it gets. Director Jodie Foster has done a great job of assembling a great cast of characters: Holly Hunt as the single mom trying to make sense of her life, Robert Downey Jr. as the cute but loud mouthed homosexual brother, Charles Durning as the eccentric father and Dylan McDermott as the outsider who gets brought home for the holidays.

Skewering the holidays and all the tensions that come with it can be done with charm and intelligence (A Christmas Story) or silly irreverance (Christmas Vacation) but what often works best is insightful pokes and jabs, as done here.

Gathering for Thanksgiving serves as an annual "let's check where we are in relationship to our family" test for most people and Home For The Holidays centers around this. As the characters try to make sense of their own lives, they come together to see that no matter how dysfunctional their lives and families may seem, their families are forever.

Kudos to Jodie Foster for making a smart film that should remain a Thanksgiving classic for years to come.

Buy Home For The Holidays On DVD From Amazon.com