Home for the Holidays

This clip takes us all the way back to 1995, when one of my personal favorite holiday movies, Home for the Holidays , was made. The whole film is a blast, but the clip above is one of its finest moments, the arrival of Tommy and his mysterious friend Leo Fish, played by Dylan McDermott. ... Full Review

The talent is first-rate, but the characterizations provided by scripter W.D. Richter in their lurchingly dramatic presentations never achieve the depth that would give them resonance; when the film closes, its focus on the supposedly poignant Claudia-Leo relationship arrives as though picked from a narrative hat of equally prospective denouements. ... Full Review

Summary: Home for the Holidays is an enjoyable comedy, though it gets to be a bit too much near the end. Home for the Holidays is a film that, despite some slow spots, was fairly enjoyable. Blacks are good throughout the film. ... Full Review

This film is neither relentlessly cheerful nor unbearably downbeat, but somewhere in the middle. Sheri Zarhin has crafted a diverting drama that is almost entirely devoid of political overtones. ... Full Review

What results is a film with some bright spots but whose effect is finally as muddled and wearying as the event itself sometimes is. Screenplay W. D. Richter, based on a short story by Chris Radant. Art director Jim Tocci. ... Full Review

Comedy loves misery, and few things manufacture discontent as efficiently as ritualized family gatherings. It's all supposed to be great fun, but Foster is not the first beginning director (this is her second time behind the camera, after "Little Man Tate") to prove that this type of material is a lot tougher to get right than it seems. ... Full Review

Tolstoy said that all happy families are alike, and Home for the Holidays strives to make this unhappy one as freaky as possible: a menagerie of jabbering wrecks, isolated in the very abundance of their missed connections. Home for the Holidays tries to be as fluid and spontaneous as a Robert Altman film and, at the same time, as glib as a cheap-shot sitcom. ... Full Review

Overstuffed with subplots, the film is somewhat episodic in nature, giving each of the characters a few scenes to develop some depth. Holly Hunter stars in "Home for the Holidays" as Claudia Larson, a single mother who loves her job at a Chicago art museum. ... Full Review

they're all cast wrong.....Holly Hunter and Dylan McDermott are the least revolting participants in this melange, but that's not saying much.....Chaplin unconvincingly adds twelve years to her actual age and her caricature of Anne Bancroft's mad sister is straight out of looney tunes..... ... Full Review

A modest film (in every sense) which pushes the gags too hard. ... Full Review