Giving thanks for this gem of a holiday movie
I’m not sure about anyone else, but I for one completely forgot that there was a new version of The Grinch out this month. Same premise, same turns, same moves but with admittedly sharp-looking animation and an intriguing voice ensemble which includes Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular meanie.
I’m sure the film has the kind of charm it needs to score with those looking to be enchanted once again (or perhaps for the first time) by this retelling of the classic Dr. Seuss tale. For me however, it means paying tribute to one of my favorite cinematic grinches in any holiday film; specifically the main protagonist in Jodie Foster’s second directorial outing, Home for the Holidays.
Holly Hunter leads the comedic Home for the Holidays as Claudia, a woman starting the season on several bad notes. Not only has she just been fired from her job at a prominent art gallery, but her teenage daughter Kitt (Claire Danes) has proclaimed that she’s planning on losing her virginity over the weekend to her boyfriend. On top of everything else, she’s about to head home to Baltimore for Thanksgiving with her famly. Waiting for the harried and frustrated Claudia is her jokester gay brother Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.), her type-A sister Joanne (Cynthia Stevenson), her wacky aunt Gladys (Geraldine Chaplin), her overbearing mother Adele (Anne Bancroft), her content father Henry (Charles Durning), her tightly-wound brother-in-law Walter (Steve Guttenberg) and her brother’s handsome friend Leo (Dylan McDermott), all of whom play a part in making the holiday a life-changing one for her.
Although someone like Foster has never been particularly known for her comedic sensibilities, she manages to bring plenty of humor out in Home for the Holidays, with most of it coming at the expense of the main character. Simply watching Claudia numbingly take every blow life is throwing at her as she makes her way back to her hometown is tragically hilarious in and of itself. Claudia is a woman who knows she’s at a breaking point, but remains astonishingly composed; as if she herself sees the humor about her own life. Additionally, Foster throws in a number of sequences which cannot help but draw out old-fashioned belly laughs. Watching as Tommy, polaroid in hand, sneaks up on everyone and snaps photos at the most awkward of moments is almost as hilarious as witnessing the family turkey get hurled onto Joanne’s lap and seeing Walter and Tommy turn an innocent game of football into a wrestling match. The script itself also proves capable of offering up its own share of chuckles that contain subtle pearls of wisdom within. There’s Tommy’s impromptu Thanksgiving prayer: “Well, that was absurd, let’s eat dead bird,” and Adele’s philosophy on the whole day: “I’m giving thanks that we don’t have to go through this for another year,” she muses. “Except we do, because those bastards went and put Christmas right in the middle, just to punish us,” she exhaustedly adds.
At the heart of Home for the Holidays though is a movie of reflection and revelation. Foster’s film nails that sheer feeling of being overwhelmed JUST from being surrounded by so much family, despite having grown up with them. The movie also poignantly explores the feeling of being forced to look at the state of your life in the present and how it doesn’t feel quite enough. The holidays are traditionally the time of year when one’s own life is examined, sometimes to the point of madness; and everything lacking becomes all the more real. “Nobody means what they say on Thanksgiving, mom,” Claudia tells Adele. “That’s what the day’s supposed to be all about, right? Torture.” But the day is also about looking at the people you call your family and slowly recognizing them for the complex creatures they really are. When it’s revealed at dinner that Tommy has married his long-term boyfriend, he and Adele face the issue simply and realistically. “Enough,” exclaims Tommy. “You’re a pain in my ass. You have bad hair. But I like you a lot,” he tells his mother. When Adele states: “Well, you know me. I can’t change,” Tommy replies: “Believe me, neither can I, ma.” It’s the experience of having to discover both yourself and your family all at once on a yearly basis that the film lovingly brings to life and really makes Home for the Holidays ring true, more than anything else. “You don’t know the first thing about me,” Claudia says to Joanne, causing her sister to respond: “Likewise, I’m sure. If I just met you on the street and you gave me your phone number, I’d throw it away.” Struck by their shared honesty, Claudia says: “Well, we don’t have to like each other, Jo. We’re family.”
Hunter has always been one of cinema’s most uncharacteristic leading ladies in the sense that one can never truly pin her down in terms of range or image, leading to one gusto-filled performance as different as the last. Claudia proves to be no exception as the Oscar-winner throws herself into her character, bringing out her struggle to understand the life around her as well as her ability to laugh at it. The rest of the cast is top and Foster is generous enough to make sure each one of them is afforded the opportunity to show some of the essence within the characters they’re playing. However it’s Downey Jr. and Bancroft who steal the show with the former bringing his brand of zaniness into every scene (as well as some touching depth) and Bancroft as a woman holding onto the people she loves the best way she knows how.
Home for the Holidays was received (at best) moderately well by critics, with most having a few “nice” things to say about it. Still, the film was not the critical hit most were expecting given its pedigree in front of and behind the camera. Meanwhile, audiences took little joy in going to the movies only to see representations of themselves which perhaps may perhaps hit a bit too close to home for them to have a good time, making the film an undeniable flop.
Foster has always been the most curious of directors, whose projects have had shades of commonalities without ever fitting into any one genre. The personal aspects of her debut Little Man Tate, the tackling of mental illness in The Beaver and the commenting of a post-Madoff New York in Money Monster all feel like efforts from a collection of filmmakers whose ideologies couldn’t be more different. Yet Home for the Holidays is perhaps Foster’s truest film as a director because it takes a single outsider and allows them discover that they are living amongst a collection of outsiders. Home for the Holidays is a comedy, and a well-written one at that. But it’s ultimate strength as a film is how it brings to light the fact that everyone believes their life is unsatisfying as well as problematic; and the comfort of realizing that everyone else’s is too.
