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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 722
Released: September 4, 2001 |
| Our Price: $6.59 |
| Used Price: $5.99 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A single mother looses her job and travels home to spend Thanksgiving with her family all on the same day.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 30-JUL-2002
Media Type: DVD
Description of Home for the Holidays:
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
Home for the Holidays Reviews:
"Wicked Thankgiving w/ The Family" film 
2009-11-27 - Headlined by the always great Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning as 'The Parents', this wickedly funny take on the dysfunctional family at the holiday dinner will have many of us shaking our heads in acknowledgement that 'yes, our relatives can be ill-behaved and crazy' but there by the grace of God each goes in world as best we can. This always on my Thanksgiving double-feature right after the movie "Pieces of April". Love both movies!
I'm glad I watched it to the end.
2009-11-20 - I just watched this movie for the first time. I have to admit that I thought a couple of times about stopping it in the middle, and not watching the whole thing. I was thinking to myself, "What is it that people like about movies about dysfunctional families?" Well, it kind of all comes together in the end. Or, maybe it is just that by the end you finally get the point of the movie. (In fact, the chapters of the movie are separated by titles that appear on the screen, and the last chapter is entitled: "The Point." But I didn't think about it so much when I was watching it the first time.)
Something rare happens in this movie that doesn't often happen in ensemble cast movies. Holly Hunter's character at one point says, "When you go home, do you look around and wonder, 'Who ARE these people?'" In fact, each and every member of the cast has their character's story told in depth, and we the viewers get to know "who they are." The acting is fantastic!
Indeed, I think this is what helped me get through the movie. While at points I thought it was a bit torturous to watch a dysfunctional family go through the motions of trying to get along for the holidays, it really made me think about my own life and my own family. Isn't that one of the main reasons you might enjoy a movie? There were funny moments, sad moments, contemplative moments, crazy moments, and all the other kinds of moments that make up real life.
Anyway, at the end of the movie, when it gets to people thinking about their lives, it really made me think about my own life and my own family. I believe that this is why I really liked the movie. And I will definitely watch it again.
Watching the movie a second time with the commentary by Jodie Foster was as much fun, if not funner, than watching the movie the first time. She explains many of the parts of the movie that I didn't stop and think about the first time I watched it. I wonder exactly how autobiographical the movie really is for her.
Home for the Holidays
2009-04-19 - A thanksgiving movie with just enough dysfunction most of us can relate. Great cast and script. A favorite of my family.
Dysfunctional Family at its best 
2009-02-16 - C'mon, your family's Thanksgiving couldn't possibly be this bad, could it? It's a poignent look at the pain and love families commit on and to one another. Laughter and tears almost guarenteed.
Love it
2009-01-06 - I absolutely love this movie and was so glad I was finally able to find it.
