A script lacking dramatic weight and humorous bite, along with characters that are just too 'off centre', mean that Jodie Foster's second outing as director is not a terribly memorable one.
Holly Hunter, always an enjoyable screen presence, impresses as Claudia Larson, a single mother who finds herself making yet another annual flight to celebrate thanksgiving with her painful family. All this on top of losing her job and discovering that her sixteen year old daughter is about to begin having sexual relations with her boyfriend. Life sucks sometimes! Unfortunately Holly's character is really the only one the audience is going to be able to relate to, or even stomach for that matter. Anne Bancroft's mom is a nightmare of paranoia, dad (Charles Durning) is a nostalgic, rotund old fool who is quite possibly losing his grip, while sister and brother-in-law (Cynthia Stevenson and Steve Guttenberg) are obnoxious and self-centred. Add to this a nutty Aunt (Geraldine Chaplin) and a totally flaky and intensely irritating homosexual brother (a most unlikeable Robert Downey Jnr.) and you find it very hard to feel sympathy for, get involved with, or laugh at any of this sorry lot.
The screenplay swings from drama to comedy to romance to tragedy on many occasions, but Foster is unable to gain effect in any of these modes. In the end neither cast nor crew can pick up the pieces of what was really a misdirected project to begin with. My advice......don't bother going "Home for the Holidays."
Saturday, May 25, 1996 - Capitol Cinema, Melbourne
Holly Hunter, always an enjoyable screen presence, impresses as Claudia Larson, a single mother who finds herself making yet another annual flight to celebrate thanksgiving with her painful family. All this on top of losing her job and discovering that her sixteen year old daughter is about to begin having sexual relations with her boyfriend. Life sucks sometimes! Unfortunately Holly's character is really the only one the audience is going to be able to relate to, or even stomach for that matter. Anne Bancroft's mom is a nightmare of paranoia, dad (Charles Durning) is a nostalgic, rotund old fool who is quite possibly losing his grip, while sister and brother-in-law (Cynthia Stevenson and Steve Guttenberg) are obnoxious and self-centred. Add to this a nutty Aunt (Geraldine Chaplin) and a totally flaky and intensely irritating homosexual brother (a most unlikeable Robert Downey Jnr.) and you find it very hard to feel sympathy for, get involved with, or laugh at any of this sorry lot.
The screenplay swings from drama to comedy to romance to tragedy on many occasions, but Foster is unable to gain effect in any of these modes. In the end neither cast nor crew can pick up the pieces of what was really a misdirected project to begin with. My advice......don't bother going "Home for the Holidays."
Saturday, May 25, 1996 - Capitol Cinema, Melbourne