Sadly Over-hyped

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I can't believe the hate or just non-watching of this gem! From the great actors to the funniness, it should be on everyone's holiday watch list!

Home for the Holidays (1995) *** (out of 4)Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) is having a string of bad luck starting with her losing her job. Over the Thanksgiving holiday she agrees to go home but it doesn't take long for her annoying family to start eating at her.Jodie Foster's HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS takes a rather formula plot and manages to make it something quite memorable thanks in large part to her direction as well as some really great performances. We've seen these type of family-get-together-at-the-holidays movies throughout history yet Foster manages to make this film feel quite original and real.I think what I enjoyed most about this film is the fact that you feel as if you're watching a real family react to one another. So often characters are just thrown into movies for drama or laughs but the characters in HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS feel real and this helps the laughs and the drama. You just really do feel as if you've dropped in on these characters, their problems and you pretty much just go along for the laughs and the drama.The performances are certainly a major factor with Hunter once again delivering some great work. Most people remember here as a dramatic actress but I thought her comic timing here was flawless and especially her chemistry with Robert Downey, Jr. Both of them are excellent in the film and even better together. You've got vets like Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning doing great work and also a strong supporting cast with the likes of Dylan McDermott, Steve Guttenberg and Geraldine Chaplin.

Plot In A Paragraph: After losing her job, making out with her (soon to be ex) boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) has to face spending the holiday with her family. Director Jodie Foster has assembled a ridiculously talented cast Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning (Whom I love, and am a big fan of) Robert Downey Jr, Dylan McDermott, Steve Guttenberg, Geraldine Chaplin, Claire Danes and Austin Pendleton.However Robert Downey Jr steals this movie from a very talented cast. As Tommy, Larson's gay brother. Although Downey Jr has admitted to regularly using heroin during the filming of this movie, it is not affected performance one bit. Listening to director Jodie Foster on the commentary track on the DVD, it would appear that Downey Jr was a pain to work with the times, as he kept improvising and going off on a whim. So I'm not sure who the praise should be aimed at Downey Jr for being able to give a good performance during such a troubled time in his life, or Foster for getting the performance out of him!!

Woman goes home for holiday, meets irritating relatives and finds a bloke. It's two hours of your life that you will wish you had spent being tasered. So, the set-up, woman (Hunter) is fired, her daughter is about to have sex with her boyfriend but going home for a holiday dinner still beckons. Gathering is a variety of characters all of which have something annoying to say from the obsessively wacky brother (Downey Junior ..why he isn't covered in bruises from casual passers-by hitting him seems to be a hole in the plot) to the obsessively dull brother (Guttenberg). The mother (Bancroft) seems to be the source of the wackiness and the father (Durning) the source of obsession. A thanksgiving dinner ensues with nobody seeming to pay attention to anyone else so self-obsessed are they all and an 'absolutely hilarious' scene with the turkey. Oh yes, enter handsome stranger. Other things happen but frankly I won't bore you with them. The film is peppered with good actors all of whom seem to fail so I would guess that the main fault is in the story and direction of it. Hollie Hunter is someone who I have liked as an actress for many years but am beginning to revise my opinion. There is not much good to say about this film except the fact that the characters were realistic ... so much so that you wanted to stick then with a fork instead of the Turkey. It is based on a short story and the only positive thing I have to say is to thank the lord the author didn't write the full version.