Miss Bee's Christmas Movie Review:

Home for the Holidays  * * * * * (5 out of 5 stars)

I always start my Christmas movies viewing on Thanksgiving Day, right after all the cooking and cleaning up, the watching of football, and two or three courses of dessert.  When all the family is gone or tucked away safe in bed, I pull out a Christmas DVD.  This is not a random selection.  I have thought about as I toiled over the oven. I have thought about it as I toiled over the sink.  It’s not a decision to be made lightly.  It sets the mood for the entire Christmas season.  I don’t want to jump to the Big Five ( It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas Vacation, Scrooged, The Homecoming and Elf) right out of the gate.  But something to ease me into the mood, the spirit…something holiday-ish buy not too Christmasy.  And I finally found it.

Home for the Holidays takes place over a Thanksgiving weekend.  First, let me preface this with Holly Hunter does not do garbage.  She’s a star with a capital “S” and picks and choices her roles carefully. (Think Robert Duvall or Sean Penn).

This relatively small film was directed by Jodie Foster.  The cast includes: Anne Bancroft, Charles During, Clare Danes, Geraldine Chaplain, Steve Guttenberg, Cynthia Stevenson and the always sexy Dylan McDermott.  Robert Downey Jr. plays the brother and steals th show, not because he's so zany but I think all of us gals wish we had a brother like him. 

For me, this movie is kind of reverse psychology, and prepares me for my own holiday dramas with my own family.  This Larson Family Thanksgiving isn’t a “slap you in the face disaster” but the dysfunctional family dynamics makes me grateful that I only have my family to deal with and not this one.

This movie is on my To Buy list for this year.  As a matter of fact, I think I’m going to do it right now.  I might even break my tradition and watch it the night before Thanksgiving this year.

From the box:

"In the span of 36 hours, Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) has managed to lose her job, make out with her boss and learn that her daughter (Claire Danes) is planning to go all the way.  But Claudia's fortunes actually take a turn for the worse when she flies home to endure an even more grueling trial:  the family Thanksgiving!  Claudia struggles to maintain her calm. But as sparks fly, tempers flair and turkeys go airborne, Claudia manages to recapture the zaniness of her childhood and discover that the most important things in life are the memories she shares with her family."