Product Details

• Actors: Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Dylan McDermott
• Directors: Jodie Foster
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Polygram Video
• VHS Release Date: October 8, 1996
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630365455X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,484 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Going home again, December 1, 2002

By	James Hiller (Beaverton, OR) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Home for the Holidays (DVD)

"Home for the Holidays" is a quiet, fun little film that I dust off once or twice a year (usually around Thanksgiving!) and sit back and absolutely enjoy. It's become a comfort film for me, one of honesty, predictability, and enjoyment. It's a wonder more people haven't discovered this mini-classic.

Holly Hunter plays Claudia, a forty year old woman forced to endure calamity after calamity on her way to her parent's house for the Thanksgiving holiday. Hunter has her role sewn up from the moment we see her; she encapsulates Claudia and makes her very real as she is conforted with mini-nightmares. These problems plague her, only to define her life as unrealized, possibly misdirected. That Hunter refuses to play her as a sack sad, or someone pitiful, is a testament to her understanding of Claudia.

The script avoids usual the "family cliches" by showing us a dysfunctional family that functions quite well. Gay brother Tommy, so perfectly mastered by Robert Downey Jr., always the family clown, removes his "make-up" and shows incredible sensitivity when he rescues his sister from her holiday horror. Dylan McDermott charms his way quietly as Leo Fish, and you believe his sincerity towards Claudia. Cynthnia Stevenson and Steve Guttenberg rock as the high strung power couple so insistent on perfection in their imperfect lives. And the wonderful Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft as the parents, so beleaguered, so joyful, so real.

While the performances shine, the script shines even brighter, offering little solutions with much insight. You understand Claudia's trauams, but know that none of them are resolvable within a two hour film, and that's ok. Even the ending, which suggests that even daring to dream is enough, is absolutely perfect for this film. A less experienced screenwriter would have fallen into the cliche trap and wrapped everything up in a neat bow, which this film suggests, is simply not possible.

"Home for the Holidays" is a signature piece by Jodie Foster, one that people who enjoy a truly good film won't be there to pass up. I hope Foster follows up by directing more classics such as this; American cinema would be better for it.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home for the Holidays has more than a few good moments, June 14, 1999

By A Customer

Its only fair to say up front that "Home For the Holidays" is the kind of movie not everybody will understand or enjoy, especially those with good well adjusted lives. However, for we huddled masses, this film is like a smiling little angle in some newly restored Renaissance masterpiece as director Jodie Foster paints with brilliant flare a portrait of a typical middle-class family at Thanksgiving. That is...a typical less than functional...American family. We, who are products of such, know what's meant by that, and appreciate the true beauty of this work is that it lets you recall the pain and joy that only families can give.

At first glance Home For The Holidays is a good-old-fashioned comedy about the reality of family values and holiday reunions. It follows the return of Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter), a 30-something never been married single-mom eldest daughter professional with a exotic career, to the childhood home for the much-dreaded November 25th holiday feast. In the course of one short not-so-good day she loses her glamorous job, self-respect, and expensive fabulously beautiful coat. As she prepares to board the plane her 15-year-old daughter, Kit (Clare Danes), informs her in a passing after thought..."I'm going to have sex with Tim, safely, and not in the car, have a nice Thanksgiving." Now, the terrified-of-flying Clyde endures the always-bumpy mind-numbing siege of a Fall flight from Chicago to Baltimore siting next to the somebody's mom passenger-from-hell. She is primmed, prelimed, and primed for a close encounter of the parental kind.

Adele, (Anne Bancroft), is an all knowing neurotic chain-smoking..."why are you squandering your god given talents"...kind of well meaning mom with a more than slightly unsound but flatulent sister, Aunt Glady (Geraldine Chaplin). She was a Latin teacher! Henry Larson, the dad (Charles During) , a recently retired BWI (Baltimore/Washington International) flight mechanic, spouts profound non sequiturs and drives both the car and wife a little more crazy by the minute. Like a slowly drowning pouch in the bottomless pool of parentally concern the diminutive Clyde's shrinks ever younger with deafened eyes glazed just over the rim of a10 year-old three-sizes-too-big spare bright red parka. Of course mom and dad play their hydrous game of catch-up. When, from the back seat mom leans over and whispers..."I can see your roots Claudia"...and you're greeted at the door by Frank the cat coughing up a hairball, you know your really home.

To Clyde's unbemused delight Tommy (Robert Downey), the favorite baby brother makes a surprise night-vision goggle raid that culminates in ballroom kitchen dancing and a late snack. They all know Tommy sports many hats as a successful Boston restaurateur, manic wisecracking prankster, Polaroid popping paparazzi, and a mans-man. But now he has a relationship secret that Clyde will pry out if it kills him. She thinks something awful has happen between Tommy and his significant other, Jack (Sam Slovick). She also resents, no questions her brother's new guy pal in-tow, specialty cook Leo Fish's (Dylan McDarmatt), incessant sucking up. That is, until it finally dawns that he's not gay and has been hitting on her. Tommy told Leo about big bad sister's earlier fragile in fight cry for help and showed him Clyde's picture. Hey, that picture, was something else...but was she naked...was she what...in the picture, Tommy showed him, was she naked? The most difficult piece of this eccentric jigsawed quilt is the wonderfully awful Witmans freshly flushed from their curbside bunker. This passel of possum players is headed-up by the up-tight, resentfully compulsive, younger sister turned care taker, Joann (Cynthia Stevenson), followed in suit by husband banker Walter (Steven Guttenborg), brat niece Brittany Lace (Emily Ann Lloyd), and ingrate nephew, Walter Jr (Zack Duhame).

So, to the melody of Nat "King" Cole's "The Very Though of You" this quirky cast lends the film the unforgettable rhythm of a tap dancer on a run-away roller coaster. Despite the many ups, downs, twists, and turns it doesn't miss a beat. At the end of the day, after the birds are et, all is said and done in the wake of the show and tell, and the last dish been washed and put away, this lovely little comedy has a very small but special message. Although it maybe lasts for 10 seconds, tops...the really important things in life are those brief, seemingly insignificant, sometimes tender, and often bittersweet incidents we experience when we're with family. We always remember and cherish...the moments...and Home for the Holidays has more than a few good moments.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home Anyone...........???, December 8, 2004

By	V. Marshall (North Fork, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Home for the Holidays (DVD)

Ahhh the holidays....that wonderful time of thankfulness, love and laughter, NOT!!! This movie will have you in stitches each and every holiday season if you suffer from that ever present disease of dysfunctional family syndrome.

Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) is wallowing in self-pity for good reason, she was fired from her job, her daughter is about to have sex for the first time and she is traveling back home for the holidays. What more could a girl ask for, a cold? She arrives to a snowy existence and a family of little understanding. Her father Henry (Charles Durning) and her mother Adele (Anne Bancroft) are seemingly oblivious to all of the turmoil they have created and that now resides within their children. Soon the house is filled with love and lots of arguments! Gay brother Tommy Larson (Robert Downey Jr.) appears to torture the entire clan with mischief and in tow he has a co-worker/friend, Leo Fish (Dylan McDermott). And of course what family would be complete without the crazy aunt (Geraldine Chaplin) and a branch of perfection that breaks off and becomes the norm, sister Joanne (Cynthia Stevenson) and her [...] husband Walter (Steve Guttenberg). So sit back and have a toast with a perfectly normal American family for the holidays but get ready to laugh uncontrollably too!

Jodie Foster directed this film about the typical dysfunctional family during the holiday season and she brings both a sensitive understanding and a full blown sense of humor to this holiday table. Holly Hunter is really wonderful as the hopeful but often misunderstood sister in a clan of crazies. Despite his drug induced performance, Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast as the troubled brother with secrets to protect from a family that can't accept modern life. Dylan McDermott is the pretty boy of the film but offers much more than a cute mug in his role as the charming outsider. Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft are brilliant as clueless parents who are stuck in the roles they took upon themselves many years ago; both are unknowingly hilarious just like most parents who prefer to keep their eyes closed. Cynthia Stevenson is great as the perfectionist sister that seems to lurk about in every family and marries a nerd so that she can pretend to be happy. But the true scene stealer of this film has to be Geraldine Chaplin as crazy but oblivious Aunt Gladys, you cannot watch her performance and not fall on the floor in hysterics! Overall this is the perfect holiday movie to bring good cheer where little may truly exist.....after all if you can't laugh at yourself what is the point in holiday reunions, isn't that what brings us back home year after year?