Home Alone (1990)
The Cast
Macaulay Culkin .... Kevin
Joe Pesci .... Harry
Daniel Stern .... Marv
John Heard .... Peter
Roberts Blossom .... Marley
Catherine O'Hara .... Kate
Angela Goethals .... Linnie
Devin Ratray .... Buzz
John Candy .... Gus Polinski
Kieran Culkin .... Fuller
Hope Davis .... French Ticket Agent
Jim Ortlieb .... Herb the Drugstore Clerk
Serendipity: I'm responsible for nineteen of the twenty top-grossing films of all time.
Bethany: Nineteen?
Serendipity: Yeah, the one about the kid, by himself in his house, burglars trying to get in and he fights them off? I had nothing to do with that one. Somebody sold their soul to Satan to get the grosses up on that piece of shit.
That exchange taken from Kevin Smith's 1999 film Dogma is a far more appropriate sum-up of Home Alone than I'll ever be able to muster. The premise of the film is unfathomably ridiculous. Most of the scenes that take place throughout the movie break the rules of conventional filmmaking. More then half the characters in the movie are unforgivably dumb and the entire staging of the movie feels contrived. So what's the explanation behind the movie's $533 million worldwide box office take?
First of all, writer John Hughes crafted the story for one actor to play the part of Kevin McAllister, the young boy left Home Alone as his family flies to France for a Christmas vacation. Macaulay Culkin won over Hughes and audiences with his performance in Uncle Buck which led to Hughes writing the lead part in HA for the youngster. Hughes knew exactly what Macaulay was capable of and was counting on audiences falling in love with the pint-size actor in a violent holiday movie for everyone. I don't know about anyone else, but when HA was in theatres, I ended up seeing it three times so at the time it definitely worked.
Chris Columbus directed the movie and surrounded Macaulay by a cast loaded with screen vets and comedic geniuses. When you have Catherine O'Hara and John Candy bouncing off one another in a very SCTV-inspired improvisational scene, you know there's going to be some funny to be had. Not to mention the two bumbling bandits of the piece, future Oscar-winner Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are complete professionals no matter the subject of the movie they've signed on for. John Heard seems a bit out of place in the movie, like he's not sure if he's supposed to be hamming it up or playing it straight.
If not for the addition of the Marley (Blossom) storyline into the movie (not originally part of the script), this movie would have no heart. Thankfully it was fleshed out and seamlessly introduced into the story and thanks to Roberts Blossom's wonderfully understated performance, it rescued the film from a potential abyss of ludicrous filmmaking. Seriously, how many 8-year-old kids - if left to their own devices - would go to the grocery store to buy fabric softener and do the laundry because there are no adults around to do it? None. Ever. In the history of man. They'd be too busy gorging themselves on candy and playing with their toys and watching cartoons.
There's a fair bit of entertainment to be had in Home Alone, but it doesn't actually start getting fun until you're about an hour into the movie. Once the Wet Bandits attempt their invasion of Kevin's house, that's the meat of the movie right there. For the next half an hour or so, you'll probably find yourself guiltily laughing at what idiots those two grown men were. The Marley storyline gets wrapped up in a heart-warming fashion and when the movie is over, you've kind of forgotten about the first hour that was somewhat plodding and insulting to your intelligence and the actors in the movie. It's a fine Christmas film though, one worthy of a yearly watch.
3 / 5