Home for the Holidays.

Mom's view:

Every year around this time I watch my very most favorite Thanksgiving movie, “Home for the Holidays.” I know most people prefer “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” which is hysterical, I’ll grant you. But to me, no movie has ever captured the sweet discomfort of a large family get together better than “Home for the Holidays.” I cringe every time I see it. This year, _______________ watched it with me.

For anyone who hasn’t had the joy of watching this movie, it’s about a fortyish single mom (Holly Hunter) who is going home for Thanksgiving dinner. Right before she leaves, she loses her job, makes out with her (ex) boss and finds out her teenaged daughter is planning on losing her virginity over the holiday. She is rapidly getting sicker with a cold, loses her coat in the airport, and is deposited in this condition in a Midwestern town to a nervous mother (Anne Bancroft) and a good natured but somewhat chuckleheaded father (Charles Durning).

The cast of characters is rounded out by the gay, hysterically funny brother (Robert Downey Jr.), who is the black sheep of the family in numerous ways, the uptight, self-appointed watchdog sister (I forget this one’s name but I love her) and her similarly uptight family, and spinster Aunt Glady (also don’t know her real name), an eccentric woman who drinks too much and says grossly inappropriate things at the family dinner. The movie’s theme is families: how much we are different, how little we understand each other, and how much, ultimately, we belong to one another. Although I’m always horrified at the beginning of this movie, by the end the family’s craziness has become familiar and I find myself feeling a little nostalgic already.

The only completely unbelievable thing about the film is the fact that Robert Downey Jr. brings along a gorgeous, semi-normal guy (Dylan McDermott) who has seen Holly Hunter’s picture and wants to get to know her. I think the point of this is that the producers wanted to make sure we didn’t all go home and slit our wrists. If this was my family, someone would have brought over a reclusive neighbor with stained pants because they felt sorry for him and he would be the one who found me unbearably attractive. I’m just saying.

Anyway, ___________________ and I are going down to Florida this year to spend Thanksgiving with my mom and stepfather, my stepsister, and her two daughters. We have four divorces between us. I’ll also see my father (two divorces) and my grandmother on his side (widow). My ex-husband lives in Florida, and will be coming to Thanksgiving dinner as well. Even pared down to its most elemental form, it sounds crazy doesn’t it? And when you get into the nuances, it’s even more tricky.

As in “Home for the Holidays,” there will be issues. Someone will be mad at someone else, someone will be hurt, someone will drink too much, and someone will say the wrong thing. Actually, it’s quite possible that I’ll be responsible for all of these things. By the end of the trip, though, I will be sad to go. Because whatever its form, this is my family, and they belong to me. Whether they like it or not.

Son's view:

I liked this movie. I liked how the movie was set up in chapters. The family was funny and all the times the brother did something stupid it made me laugh. The mom was funny and when she took off her wig I thought that she was an evil old lady. My favorite part of the movie was when the brother told her to get into the car and then he drove away.