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Home for the Holidays | 
 enlarge | Director: Jodie Foster
Actors: Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Robert Downey Jr., Charles Durning, Dylan Mcdermott
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: Video
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $3.89
You Save: $6.09 (61%)
New (5) Used (7) from $1.94
Rating:  109 reviews
Sales Rank: 1712
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original Recording Reissued, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1
ISBN: 0792846990
UPC: 027616854292
EAN: 9780792846994
ASIN: B00004XMSM
Theatrical Release Date: November 3, 1995
Release Date: October 3, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Holly Hunter plays a Chicago-based single mom who--on the day before Thanksgiving--loses her job and is informed by her daughter of the latter's intention to surrender her virginity while on a weekend-long affair. If that's not enough, Hunter's character then has to fly to Baltimore to join her fractious family for another difficult Thanksgiving. Robert Downey Jr. is terrifically charming as her prankish, gay brother, and Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning show plenty of comic resilience during the predictably interesting Thanksgiving dinner scene. The script by W.D. Richter (Brubaker) avoids the usual clichés in family dramas--the deepest, darkest secret revealed here involves the painfully sweet revelation of a 40-year-old crush. Jodie Foster, directing her second feature, focuses instead on the inevitable softening of old grudges and disappointments with time. This is a wise as well as wonderfully fun movie. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 104 more reviews...
 Charming snapshot of American family November 29, 2008
Chris Wilson (Dallas, TX)
I first saw "Home for the Holidays" when it was released on video in 1995. A small film, lovingly directed by Jodie Foster and blessed with an extraordinary cast, I was stunned by its frenetic charm. To this day I recommend it to friends, most of whom have never heard of it. Equal parts comedy and drama, "Home for the Holidays" covers the Larson family reunion on Thanksgiving day. The oldest daughter Claudia (Holly Hunter) is a single mom just fired from her job at an art gallery in Chicago. While en route to the airport, her teenage daughter (Claire Danes) reveals her plans to have sex for the first time while mom is away.
That's just one of many subplots interwoven into this colorful tapestry, as Claudia lands in Baltimore in the arms of her parents, portrayed by the indelible Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft. Eventually, all family members arrive at the holiday table, including the homosexual son Tommy (Robert Downey, Jr.), his mysterious friend Leo (Dylan McDermott), the prudish sister Joanne with husband Walter (Cynthia Stevenson and Steve Guttenberg) and eccentric Aunt Gladys (Geraldine Chaplin), a lonely soul with a taste for wine and impromptu recollections.
As madcap as a Griswold family vacation, "Home for the Holidays" will strike multiple chords with viewers as it stumbles through a variety of dysfunctional family dynamics and the sad reality of expectations not met. The contrasting personalities of these strong characters (and actors) ricochet continuously, held together by the thinnest thread of love and remembrance of a lost dynamic. I've been to enough family Thanksgiving dinners to know it's nothing short of a miracle they come off, and the dinner in "Home for the Holidays" is equally manic. Turkey's are thrown across the room, wine is spilled, fights break out and trips to the grocery store become epic misadventures.
The performances are uniformly superb, with Hunter and Bancroft especially touching as mother and daughter. Their scenes together are one of many highlights. Downey, Jr., as has been reported, was suffering from drug abuse during this film and there are times when his twitchy portrayal is over the top. Still, he gives a terrific performance. Now that this great actor has overcome his demons, the film is not as painful to watch.
Visually the movie is extraordinary, with several haunting snapshots - the snow-covered steps of the family home, Hunter stranded on the sidewalk in front of a cemetery, Bancroft standing in the snow in her housecoat and Durning watching home movies in the privacy of the cellar. I was especially moved to tears during the closing montage where youthful flashbacks of the family were shown on faded 8mm stock. For those who grew up in the 1960s, these grainy portraits of grandparents, parents and children will remind us of some of the purest moments of our own lives.
My lone complaint is a surprise ending which is too formulaic for my taste. I would have liked more subtlety, as everything up to that point was unusually truthful. The right chord had been struck as Hunter is boarding the plane to return home and her father quietly says, "We made her." Why dilute this by tacking on the fairy tale? Oh well, I still love "Home for the Holidays," a beautiful snapshot with an uncommon eye for the dramatic struggles of an aging American family. This is one of the best films you've never heard of.
 Think your family is quirky? November 24, 2008
Momma J.
This is a great laugh out loud family movie for Thanksgiving. A funny disfunctional family with a HOOT of an Aunt!
 OK NOT GREAT November 2, 2008
Dorothy J. Blessett (USA MISSOURI)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
TYPICALLY I LOVE HOLLY HUNTER, BUT EVEN HER TALENT DID NOT CREATE ANY INTEREST FOR ME. THIS IS MOST LIKELY TOO TRUE TO REALLY ENJOY, A LARGELY DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY--- NOT WORTH PAYING MONEY FOR. JUST STEP NEXT DOOR AND GET THIS FOR FREE.
 Its lack of effort disappoints me... October 13, 2008
Andrew Ellington (Mulholland Drive)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
There are plenty of holiday family films that get it right. In recent years I've enjoyed `The Family Stone' and `Pieces of April'. `Home for the Holidays' just doesn't do it for me the way that these other films have. I searched this film out mainly because I adore Robert Downey Jr. (such a major comeback) and I heard great things about his performance here. That and the fact that Holly Hunter is always a delight (as are Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning) and I was seeking this film like a missile. The film as a whole is not as great as its individual parts.
The film is bogged down by too many clichés.
There was not a single original character in this film. If that were the only issue then I could see still enjoying this film to a certain extent, but that is not the only issue I have with `Home for the Holidays'. The film is littered with realistic conversations between family members, but unlike films by Woody Allen and or Robert Altman, Foster can't manage to make these seemingly natural situations appear `natural'. These sequences come off more uncomfortable than anything else. And then there are the less than impressive, slightly (often not slightly) over-the-top performances that tend to degrade the films credibility.
More on those in a minute.
The film revolves around single mom Claudia Larson who, day before Thanksgiving, finds herself jobless and traveling to visit her family. Her daughter Kitt is staying behind to give herself to her boyfriend, and her eccentric brother Tommy (the only family member she gets along with) is reportedly `not' coming to the family dinner. So, Claudia is a nervous wreck, aware of the fact that she will have to get through this weekend on her own. Her parents, Henry and Adele, have all but lost their minds; her crazy Aunt Gladys has lost hers and her sister Joanne obviously harbors much resentment for Claudia, mainly because she doesn't know her yet has her all figured out (don't you hate people like that). When Tommy surprises everyone with his presence (and a new guy in his life) the family is thrown up in arms as secrets are revealed, grudges are uncovered and fights ensue.
I just wish that something, anything, felt fresh and or new.
The films only saving grace at this point would be the acting, since the scripting is all over the place with its attempts at being meaningful (not all attempts succeed), but the acting never even really gets off the ground. Holly Hunter, a very capable actress, suffers from a diluted script that never gives her character enough attention to grow. She is left trying to be something more than the film allows her to be, and in the end she becomes rather boring. The only scenes where she really excels are scenes where she is conversing with Downey Jr. (they actually make for very believable siblings) but that leads me to Downey Jr., who never really manages to pull off his performance as a whole. He has his moments where he is charming and natural and graceful, but then he has his episodes where he is just downright obnoxious and unbearable (that whole car scene with the story of the snot was ridiculous).
Dylan McDermott is a bland leading man; Claire Danes is barely there (even if she is naturally luminous); Steve Guttenberg tries, but fails; Geraldine Chaplin has a few funny scenes (and a stout revelation) but cannot elevate the film in any way. Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning seem like a great pair for the whole mother/father team but they are stuck muddling through jokes and gags that are beneath them. In fact, Cynthia Stevenson (from `According to Jim'!!!) is the only actor/actress here that actually manages to pull something beautiful off. I just wish that her characters open-shut cliché wasn't so dominant. She actually moved me in ways I never expected.
So, if you want a sweet and touching family film that embraces the holiday spirit then you might want to look elsewhere. `Home for the Holidays' has its moments, and it does try and capture the warmth of family, but it fails to really connect in a way that many other films can. It loses many points for not even attempting to bring anything new to the table, but even through clichés a film should be able to make a statement. This film, sadly, does not.
Family Values NOT June 13, 2008
Pamala P. Ritchie (Houston, Texas USA)
This film embodies the abject misery a lot of people experience when forced to go home to The Family for the holidays. You have to confront aging parents, aging siblings and old school friends/rivals. Nothing is the same anymore; yet you are bombarded with bittersweet memories. This film delivers in all those areas. You identify with the characters because you either know people like this or are related to them!
Robert Downey Jr really shines in this - which is amazing since the cast was brilliant. His performance just sparkles. He plays the gay brother of Holly Hunter who starts out just plain weird and becomes The Star of the film. I was disappointed when his character just goes away by escaping the insanity of The Family when he goes back to his real home to be with people who really love and appreciate the person he is rather than the little boy his family remembers. It seemed to me that the spark was gone after that.
Anyway, buy this film, put on the popcorn, curl up and enjoy. Oh, and Merry Christmas. Heh heh heh.
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