25th Anniversary: "Home for the Holidays"
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 at 8:30AM by Mark Brinkherhoff
In high school, I managed to hoodwink my journalism advisor into letting me review movies for our semi-regular school paper. In some cases, these were movies my parents certainly did not approve of (Se7en, Showgirls, etc.); in other cases, there were movies I would have seen anyway but was able to write off as a “class expense.” Home for the Holidays, Jodie Foster’s sophomore directorial effort, fell into the latter camp.
Arriving on a post-Oscar blitz of new films starring Holly Hunter (e.g. Copycat, Crash—no, not that one), Home for the Holidays got lost in the shuffle of both 1995’s crop of holiday fare and its stars own filmography...
What a cast!
But for those of us lucky enough to see it in theaters (or catch it on cable or home video, back when those were still a thing), the rewards for viewers were as ample as they are, at times, strange.
Hunter’s Claudia Larson, a harried, ignominiously fired single mom at the film’s outset, reluctantly travels back to her childhood home (sans daughter) to spend Thanksgiving with the family she clearly dreads. Greeted at the airport by her loving parents, alternatingly daffy and neurotic (though essentially good-natured), Claudia is met with one indignity after another—and that’s before she even gets “home.” Awkwardness abounds, conflict inevitably ensues. But when your parents are played by twin titans, Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning (RIP, both—truly), you clearly did something right, eh?
Throw in a whimsical aunt (Geraldine Chaplin), a humorless shrew of a sister (Cynthia Stevenson—the one real sour note in the clan…and the film’s screenplay), her patsy husband (my boyfriend-in-perpetuity, Steve Guttenberg), two bratty children, etc., and all that’s missing from this Molotov cocktail is the reliable, certifiably mischievous younger brother played winningly by a pre-rehabbed Robert Downey, Jr. That he plays the gay brother, Tommy, may seem somewhat like a hoary cliché in 2020, but I do remember thinking how refreshing it was to see imperfect, at times thorny yet unconditional love between siblings depicted so genuinely onscreen. (As a gay younger brother of sisters myself, that might’ve played into it, I’ll admit.)
There is a side note, will-they-or-won’t-they romantic subplot between Claudia and Tommy’s tag-along friend (Dylan McDermott), but most of Home for the Holidays lives or dies based on the interpersonal family dynamics that are as cringingly relatable as they are a bittersweet joy to watch. There are the requisite dinner table dustups and dramatic humiliations, interspersed with quieter moments and sidebar conversations, often shared between two characters, unpacking their personal or shared history. Anecdotes are exchanged casually, seemingly at random, but have threads that get revealed only toward the end. A long holiday weekend flies by (i.e. good pacing), and before you know it the Larson family once again parts ways, melancholically.
Can we briefly talk about Jodie Foster, the director?
Though I still mourn, like any decent cinephile, the nonexistence of the ultimately doomed Flora Plum, what I lament more is her career as a prodigious filmmaker, more or less stopped in its tracks… for decades. From her 1991 directorial debut (Little Man Tate) to her most recently helmed feature (2016’s whiff, Money Monster), Foster, if nothing else, knows how to assemble a fine cast for her projects. That Home for the Holidays remains the apex is curious, but fitting, as it’s really a valentine to dysfunctional families with deep, abiding love for one another—presumably not unlike the family Foster was born into herself.
Hollywood is, as always, a less-than-hospitable place for offbeat, talented filmmakers like Foster (not to mention unconventional actors like Hunter). We may never get the circus family of Flora Plum (whither thou?!), but what we can savor is the coda of this film, which I’d argue even is the magnum opus of Foster’s filmmaking career: three glorious minutes of marvelous vignettes; of tender, largely private moments between principle—and peripheral—characters (including what may have been the first gay marriage ceremony I ever saw onscreen, shown ever so nonchalantly, like love is love is…). It’s a beautiful, poignant grace note, as touching a reminder as any that there are certain memories we all may share as a family unit, as well as ones reserved just for yourself—no cameras, no eyewitnesses. It’s these, life’s most intimate, ephemeral moments, that remain the property of yours alone, to play back in your own mind.
Home for the Holidays is streaming now on Starz.
Reader Comments (14)
Yes, Home for the Holidays is such an underrated gem. It gives me such fond memories of Thanksgiving 1995! This and The Family Stone are my go-to films capturing family gettogethers. Personally, I liked Stevenson here, who was at the peak of her popularity, being in the middle of the 4 different 90s sitcoms on which she was a regular and 2 other movies released that year. And I still have a lot of respect to the entirety of the Egg Pictures projects, both those that went ((in addition to Home for the Holidays, Nell, The Baby Dance, Waking the Dead, and The Dangerous Life of Altar Boys) and those that didn't (in addition to Flora Plum, there was the attempt at a Leni Riefenstahl biopic).
I love this one too. To this day i get confused why it got disappointing reviews and has such a small reputation. It's really really fun and beautifully acted and Holly is on fire (as she often is). plus that ending vignette that you so rightly point to!
All I remember about this film is the coda, which seemed to borrow heavily from Cinema Paradiso (in a good way). Otherwise, for me, it runs together with all the subsequent white family holiday movies with all-star dartboard casting.
Brevity -- can you name some examples? I can't think of many that are as good as Home for the Holidays.
Just rewatched this....I think Cynthia Stevenson is great. She's on my supporting actress ballot. Love when Holly offers her her dress after the turkey explosion and she rips her a new one.
Oh, don’t get me wrong: I *like* Cynthia Stevenson’s performance; I just feel like her *character* is saddled, unfortunately, with most ungenerous, perhaps sexist (?) take in an otherwise pretty sharply shaded screenplay. Clearly I didn’t make that distinction known!
I liked this film a lot. It is hilarious. So that was the title I was trying to remember all of those years, Flora Plum</>. What was that film supposed to be about and why it fell apart? It's now got to be in that list of legendary movies that never got made like Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune, Tim Burton's Superman Lives, and Man's Fate.
i loved cynthia stevenson in the late 90s/early 2000s when she'd pop up everywhere from sitcoms to acclaimed features but, sadly, i'd since forgotten all about her. imdb tells me she still works regularly so thanks for the reminder
'home for the holidays' has a spectacular cast but i found most of the characters unlikable and the whole thing too chaotic and annoying
mark, i agree with you that the coda of this film is stunning...i've seen it many times and it gets me every time. i interviewed downey jr. once and off-camera told him how much i loved this film and how much it meant to me. we had a fairly long convo about it. i think his performance in the movie is the smartest, most layered work he's ever done. this film is a personal favorite of mine as well.
Oh, I love this film so much. It stayed with me long after I saw it (yes, that coda- simply stunning!) I thought all the performances were wonderful, Bancroft in particular. It’s funny, just last week someone tweeted that they didn’t know any Thanksgiving movies and I immediately thought of this movie and recommended he watch it. To honor this anniversary I just might do the same :)
My parents took us to see this while we were on vacation and we all hated it. Maybe my brother and I were too young, but we couldn’t enjoy it after the part where they spill everything on Joann and her daughter cries, “You broke my mommy!” It just seemed too mean. Maybe we were too boring for it.
I just watched this for the first time and I kinda... couldn't stand it? Curiously, I had the exact same reaction to The Family Stone a few months ago when I watched that for the first time, too. Like that film, I found just about everybody to be insufferable, portraying one of those annoying filmy families that don't ever seem to get along and who can't just shut up for a single minute. Why is this such an American trope?
Does anyone know what painting Claudia is restoring in the first scene?
It's really cool when a family spends the holidays together. We also want to go on a trip together. And I managed to find an article where I learned about interesting places to visit. And I'm very impressed.