Home for the Holidays

1995 "On the fourth Thursday in November, 84 million American families will gather together... And wonder why."
6.6| 1h43m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 02 November 1995 Released
Producted By: Paramount
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson faces spending the holiday with her unhinged family.

Genre

Drama, Comedy, Romance

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Director

Jodie Foster

Production Companies

Paramount

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Home for the Holidays Audience Reviews

UnowPriceless hyped garbage
BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Robert D. Ruplenas This effort from director Jodie Foster is more disastrous than the family gathering it portrays. The premise - a Thanksgiving get together of a family which is 'dysfunctional' in all the clichéd Hollywood ways - holds ample opportunity for natural comedy, but in this movie every ounce of humor is contrived and forced. And half of it misses the mark because the characters involved are either so pitiful or so unpleasant that we feel no desire to laugh (laughter in the showing my wife and I saw was decidedly spare).The movie goes on and on. My wife caught a much-needed nap in the middle; I thought my watch had broken. "Lawrence of Arabia", at four hours, passes faster than this dog at two.Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning, Bancroft especially, put in heroic efforts and come closest to rising above the material (but not quite).If you're looking for a funny movie about family get togethers, rent National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation". Yes, the humor in that movie is contrived, but it never pretends to be anything else, unlike Foster's effort which aspires toward 'realistic' humor and ends up being more contrived than the Griswold family.An unquestioned flop.
csimpkins53 I can't stand the character of Tommy in this movie. He is just a total a*****e. This dislike of him has nothing to do with the fact that Tommy is gay (I am male but I am not gay by the way). He treats everyone like s**t! The mean spirited things he says about the down-on-his-luck character portrayed by David Strathairn is just so extremely cruel and heartless! Tommy is just a very selfish, cruel, immature bastard! All he cares about is himself and as far as he is concerned everyone else can go to hell. Claudia tries to be kind to him but he is even cruel to her. He tells her to get in his car and then repeatedly screeches away from her leaving her on the sidewalk. Also, he intrudes on her in a very disrespectful, infantile way when she is showering, what a piece of s**t he is! To paraphrase Joanne: "Even if I just met him on the street and he gave me his phone number...I'd throw it away"! I wouldn't want to have anything to do with this reject! All the way through the movie I just want to punch his lights out! What an ass!! I believe that the proper term for a person who behaves in this manner is that he is a narcissist, and in the worst possible way!
James Hitchcock In Britain, Christmas comes but once a year, but this is evidently not enough for our American cousins, who have invented a second Christmas- lite in November, presumably for the benefit of those who just cannot wait another month for the opportunity to go and eat turkey at the homes of their nearest and dearest. We Brits may in recent years have accepted a fully Americanised Halloween, and sometimes even hold our own Fourth of July parties, but we just do not get the concept of Thanksgiving, so "Home for the Holidays" is frequently shown on British television during the Christmas season. Presumably the TV executives who so schedule it have not actually watched the film; if they had done so they would realise that the word "holidays" in the title actually refers to Thanksgiving. Claudia Larson is a single mother from Chicago who has just been fired from her job as an art restorer. Her sudden and unexpected loss of her employment, however, does not prevent her from flying to Baltimore to spend Thanksgiving with her parents. On the way she has rather dull conversations with her daughter and with the woman sitting next to her on the plane. When she gets there she has lots of rather dull conversations with her parents and other members of her family. Various arguments break out. Claudia finds a new male admirer. She sneezes a lot. (I think Holly Hunter had a cold). And that's about it.The screenplay was based on a short story by an obscure writer named Chris Radant, and if this film is a fair reflection of the literary merits of his story, then it is perhaps not surprising that Mr Radant has remained in obscurity. This was the second film directed by Jodie Foster (the first was "Little Man Tate") and I was certainly surprised that someone of Foster's obvious intelligence and high status in Hollywood couldn't find a more promising literary property to adapt for the screen. Foster has given many great performances as an actress, but as a director she is unable to elicit contributions of a similar quality from her actors, despite the presence in the cast of several big-name stars, including Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning. Too many of the actors mumble their words or speak too softly, making the dialogue difficult to follow. As a result the plot is also difficult to follow; for example I was for a long time under the impression that Claudia's gay brother Tommy's friend Leo was also his partner until it finally emerges that Leo is actually straight and his friendship with Tommy purely platonic. Incidentally, Downey's Tommy comes across the most irritating character in the whole film, which is saying something as there is a lot of competition for that particular title. (His nearest rival is Geraldine Chaplin's eccentric Aunt Glady). This would not have mattered if Tommy was supposed to be irritating, but I was left with the impression that, for all his childish antics, Downey, Foster and the scriptwriter actually wanted us to like him.The main problem with "Home for the Holidays" is that it's just a dull story about dull people, most of whom (Claudia being an exception) are no more likable than they are interesting. It's the sort of film where the wacky, unconventional characters like Tommy and their Aunt Glady are (beneath that facade of wacky unconventionality) just as boring as the conventional ones like Claudia's strait-laced sister Joanne and Joanne's stuffed-shirt banker husband Walter. Even their arguments are not about matters of any importance, merely endless petty bickering. It seemed like not so much a feature film as an over-extended episode from a soap opera. Given that the film is about Thanksgiving, the word "turkey" inevitably comes to mind. Perhaps it is not surprising that this turned out to be not only Foster's second film as director but also her last for many years until the recent "The Beaver". 4/10
Treyroo How many out there look forward to Thanksgiving? The turkey, the stuffing the time spent with family you haven't seen in months, if not longer? What if, when it finally arrives, you just wish it would end?Claudia Larson (played by Holly Hunter) is a former artist who now works as a restorer in a Chicago museum. She is summoned to her employer's office during work, but does not know why. Her boss, Peter Arnold (played by Austin Pendleton) informs her that, despite overwhelming enthusiasm for her profession, she is being fired. Claudia protests and mentions coworkers that she believes more worthy of termination, only to find out that, for budgetary reasons, those same coworkers will be fired also. For no apparent reason, she proceeds to kiss her now former boss which ends with her unceremoniously sneezing. He then says, "God I hate the holidays" and that is the last we see of him. With Thanksgiving approaching, Claudia is driven to the airport by her daughter Kitt (played by Claire Danes) and told that she intends to lose her virginity over the holiday, as she will be spending it with her long-time boyfriend and his family. After entering the airport, the hustle and bustle of the season causes her to lose her coat. She calls her brother, Tommy (played by Robert Downey Jr.) from the plane and, getting his answering machine, proceeds to dictate all of these recent developments to a cassette tape. When her plane lands, she is greeted by her parents Adele and Henry Larson. Adele (played by Anne Bancroft) is a housewife and, before actually speaking to her daughter she remarks on her looks. Henry (played by Charles Durning) is a retired airport worker who is called Tubby by his wife and who is simply happy to see his daughter. The drive home and the day before Thanksgiving are fairly uneventful. The occasion itself, anything but.This is a great movie. There is an obvious difference between "holiday movies" and movies that simply take place during the holidays. While A Christmas Story and the Home Alone series would be the former, Millions, another favorite of mine, and Home for the Holidays would be the latter. Members of the family just don't get along; the holiday itself is more nightmarish than heartwarming and, in spite of that, there is still a tearful goodbye as the family departs at the conclusion of the festivities. This is a movie you can, and should, watch year-round.