Home for the Holidays (film)
Encyclopedia
Home for the Holidays is a 1995
comedy-drama
film
directed
by Jodie Foster
and produced by Peggy Rajski and Jodie Foster. The screenplay was by W. D. Richter
based on the short story by Chris Radant. The music score was by Mark Isham
and the cinematography by Lajos Koltai
.
The film stars Holly Hunter
, Robert Downey Jr.
, Anne Bancroft
, Charles Durning
, Dylan McDermott
, Geraldine Chaplin
, Steve Guttenberg
, Cynthia Stevenson
with Claire Danes
, Austin Pendleton
and David Strathairn
.
at the home of her parents, Adele and Henry Larson, while her only child Kitt decides to stay home and spend the holiday with her boyfriend. Kitt informs Claudia that she intends to have sex with her boyfriend.
The family gathering also includes Claudia's resentful, conservative sister, Joanne Larson Wedman, her stuffy banker husband Walter and their two spoiled children. Also there is Claudia's gay
brother Tommy and his new friend Leo Fish, along with their eccentric aunt Glady.
Tommy has been in a long term relationship with another man, Jack, so Claudia can't understand what he is doing here with a new guy by his side. But it turns out Leo has come along for the holidays to be introduced to Claudia. Tommy, it turns out, married Jack. After a hectic, argument-filled Thanksgiving, when Claudia boards a plane home, Leo goes with her.
newspaper. Executive producer Stuart Kleinman sent Jodie Foster the screenplay with a note that said, "It's a complete mess and I love it." Foster agreed and decided that it would be her second directorial effort (the first was Little Man Tate
). Castle Rock Films was originally going to finance the film but canceled. Foster's own production company, Egg Productions, acquired Richter's screenplay. She struck a deal with Paramount Pictures
to distribute the film theatrically and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
to handle the international rights and domestic video and pay TV.
Foster said, "The great challenge was to find a beautiful idea to pull through it, a narrative
line that would make the story work." Foster met with Richter and together they brainstormed and "had great fun thinking up new details and lives and clearing up the relationships," Foster remembers. They worked on the script so that the film reflected Foster's point-of-view and her own life experiences. She showed the first draft to Holly Hunter who agreed to star after reading it. Working with a $20 million budget, Foster spent ten weeks filming in Baltimore with a two-week rehearsal period. She used this time to get input from the actors about dialogue. If a scene of speech did not ring true, she wanted to know. She picked the city because it was the "prototype of the American city. It's dangerous, east coasty, urban. Yet it still has a hopeful quality to it." Principal photography began February 1995. Filming of the Thanksgiving dinner took more than ten days, using 64 turkeys, 20 pounds of mashed potatoes, 35 pounds of stuffing, 44 pies, 30 pounds of sweet potatoes, 18 bags of mini-marshmallows and 50 gallons of juice that stood in for wine. Foster allowed Robert Downey Jr. to improvise which got him excited about making films again after a period of time where he became disillusioned with acting.
and a 56 metascore at Metacritic
. In his three and half star review, Roger Ebert
praised Foster's ability to direct "the film with a sure eye for the revealing little natural moment," and Downey's performance that "brings out all the complexities of a character who has used a quick wit to keep the world's hurts at arm's length." Janet Maslin
, in her review for the New York Times, praised Holly Hunter's performance: "Displaying a dizziness more mannered than the cool, crisp intelligence she shows in Copycat
, Ms. Hunter still holds together Home for the Holidays with a sympathetic performance." In his review for the Boston Globe, Jay Carr praised the film for being "filled with juicy performances that expand resourcefully beyond what we think are going to be their boundaries, the film carries us beyond our expectations. That's what makes it so pleasurable."
USA Today
gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Home has the usual hellish ritual. They come, they eat, they argue, they leave. It's the stuffing in-between that makes it special." However, in her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley criticized some of the performances: "Downey brings a lot of energy to the role, but his antics can be both tedious and distracting. Hunter has a lovely scene with her disgruntled sister, but there's no time for that relationship to develop, what with a romantic interest yet to explore." In his review for Rolling Stone
magazine, Peter Travers had problems with the screenplay: "It's a shame that W.D. Richter's un-Disney-ish script often slides into shrill stereotypes and sitcom silliness."
1995 in film
-Top grossing films:-Events:* March 22 - The Dogme 95 movement is officially announced in Paris by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.* March 28 - Actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett announce their plans for separation....
comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
and produced by Peggy Rajski and Jodie Foster. The screenplay was by W. D. Richter
W. D. Richter
W. D. Richter is a screenwriter and has occasionally directed and produced. He is best known for adapting Invasion of the Body Snatchers , directing The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, and helping write Big Trouble in Little China.- Biography:Richter graduated from...
based on the short story by Chris Radant. The music score was by Mark Isham
Mark Isham
Mark Isham is an American trumpeter, synthesist, and film composer. He works in a variety of genres, including jazz, electronic, and film.-Life and career:...
and the cinematography by Lajos Koltai
Lajos Koltai
Lajos Koltai, ASC, HSC, is a Hungarian cinematographer and film director best known for his work with legendary Hungarian director Istvan Szabo, and Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore...
.
The film stars Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
, Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
, Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....
, Charles Durning
Charles Durning
Charles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
, Dylan McDermott
Dylan McDermott
Mark Anthony McDermott , better known by his professional name of Dylan McDermott, is an American actor, known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the television legal drama The Practice and his role in the series Dark Blue as Lt. Carter Shaw. McDermott currently stars in FX...
, Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
, Steve Guttenberg
Steve Guttenberg
Steven Robert "Steve" Guttenberg is an American actor and comedian. He became well known during the 1980s, after a series of starring roles in major Hollywood films, including Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby, Police Academy, and Short Circuit.-Early life:Guttenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, the...
, Cynthia Stevenson
Cynthia Stevenson
Cynthia Stevenson is an American actress.Stevenson was born in Oakland, California, the daughter of Gayle, an editor, and Al Stevenson, an upholstery warehouse owner. She grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia....
with Claire Danes
Claire Danes
Claire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...
, Austin Pendleton
Austin Pendleton
Austin Pendleton is an American film, television, and stage actor, a playwright, and a theatre director and instructor.-Life and career:...
and David Strathairn
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
.
Plot
Claudia Larson is a single mom who has just been fired from her job as an art restorer due to budget cuts. She flies to spend ThanksgivingThanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
at the home of her parents, Adele and Henry Larson, while her only child Kitt decides to stay home and spend the holiday with her boyfriend. Kitt informs Claudia that she intends to have sex with her boyfriend.
The family gathering also includes Claudia's resentful, conservative sister, Joanne Larson Wedman, her stuffy banker husband Walter and their two spoiled children. Also there is Claudia's gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
brother Tommy and his new friend Leo Fish, along with their eccentric aunt Glady.
Tommy has been in a long term relationship with another man, Jack, so Claudia can't understand what he is doing here with a new guy by his side. But it turns out Leo has come along for the holidays to be introduced to Claudia. Tommy, it turns out, married Jack. After a hectic, argument-filled Thanksgiving, when Claudia boards a plane home, Leo goes with her.
Cast
- Holly HunterHolly HunterHolly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
as Claudia Larson - Robert Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr.Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
as Tommy Larson - Anne BancroftAnne BancroftAnne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....
as Adele Larson - Claire DanesClaire DanesClaire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...
as Kitt Larson - Charles DurningCharles DurningCharles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
as Henry Larson - Dylan McDermottDylan McDermottMark Anthony McDermott , better known by his professional name of Dylan McDermott, is an American actor, known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the television legal drama The Practice and his role in the series Dark Blue as Lt. Carter Shaw. McDermott currently stars in FX...
as Leo Fish - Geraldine ChaplinGeraldine ChaplinGeraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
as Aunt Glady - Steve GuttenbergSteve GuttenbergSteven Robert "Steve" Guttenberg is an American actor and comedian. He became well known during the 1980s, after a series of starring roles in major Hollywood films, including Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby, Police Academy, and Short Circuit.-Early life:Guttenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, the...
as Walter Wedman - Cynthia StevensonCynthia StevensonCynthia Stevenson is an American actress.Stevenson was born in Oakland, California, the daughter of Gayle, an editor, and Al Stevenson, an upholstery warehouse owner. She grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia....
as Joanne Larson Wedman - David StrathairnDavid StrathairnDavid Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
as Russell Terziak
Production
Screenwriter W. D. Richter adapted a short story by Chris Radant that appeared in a BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
newspaper. Executive producer Stuart Kleinman sent Jodie Foster the screenplay with a note that said, "It's a complete mess and I love it." Foster agreed and decided that it would be her second directorial effort (the first was Little Man Tate
Little Man Tate
Little Man Tate is a 1991 motion picture drama directed by and starring Jodie Foster.It tells the story of Fred Tate, a 7-year-old child prodigy who struggles to self-actualize in a social and psychological construct that largely fails to accommodate his intelligence...
). Castle Rock Films was originally going to finance the film but canceled. Foster's own production company, Egg Productions, acquired Richter's screenplay. She struck a deal with Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
to distribute the film theatrically and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was a film studio, founded in 1979 as a European competitor to Hollywood, but eventually sold and merged with Universal Pictures in 1999....
to handle the international rights and domestic video and pay TV.
Foster said, "The great challenge was to find a beautiful idea to pull through it, a narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
line that would make the story work." Foster met with Richter and together they brainstormed and "had great fun thinking up new details and lives and clearing up the relationships," Foster remembers. They worked on the script so that the film reflected Foster's point-of-view and her own life experiences. She showed the first draft to Holly Hunter who agreed to star after reading it. Working with a $20 million budget, Foster spent ten weeks filming in Baltimore with a two-week rehearsal period. She used this time to get input from the actors about dialogue. If a scene of speech did not ring true, she wanted to know. She picked the city because it was the "prototype of the American city. It's dangerous, east coasty, urban. Yet it still has a hopeful quality to it." Principal photography began February 1995. Filming of the Thanksgiving dinner took more than ten days, using 64 turkeys, 20 pounds of mashed potatoes, 35 pounds of stuffing, 44 pies, 30 pounds of sweet potatoes, 18 bags of mini-marshmallows and 50 gallons of juice that stood in for wine. Foster allowed Robert Downey Jr. to improvise which got him excited about making films again after a period of time where he became disillusioned with acting.
Track listing
- Rusted RootRusted RootRusted Root is a band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania known for their unique fusion of acoustic, rock, world and other styles of music, with a strong percussion section that draws from African, Latin American, Native American, and Indian influences...
- "Evil Ways" 4:03 - Mark IshamMark IshamMark Isham is an American trumpeter, synthesist, and film composer. He works in a variety of genres, including jazz, electronic, and film.-Life and career:...
- "Holiday Blues" 4:46 - Nat King ColeNat King ColeNathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
- "Candy" 3:51 - Tom JonesTom Jones (singer)Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
- "It's Not Unusual" 2:01 - Mark Isham - "Blue Nights" 9:25
- Mark Isham - "Birth of the Cool Whip" 2:53
- Dinah WashingtonDinah WashingtonDinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
- "Trouble in Mind" 2:50 - Mark Isham - "Late Night Blues" 4:59
- Mark Isham - "Medley of the Very Thought of You/With Us Alone" 2:42
- Ray NobleRay Noble (musician)Ray Noble was an English bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day...
- "The Very Thought of You" 4:25 - Nat King Cole - "The Very Thought of You" 3:47
- Janis JoplinJanis JoplinJanis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
- "Piece of My Heart" 4:14
Box office
Home for the Holidays was released on November 3, 1995 in 1,000 theaters and grossed USD $4 million in its opening weekend. It went on to make $17.5 million in North America.Reviews
The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics with a 62% rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and a 56 metascore at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. In his three and half star review, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
praised Foster's ability to direct "the film with a sure eye for the revealing little natural moment," and Downey's performance that "brings out all the complexities of a character who has used a quick wit to keep the world's hurts at arm's length." Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
, in her review for the New York Times, praised Holly Hunter's performance: "Displaying a dizziness more mannered than the cool, crisp intelligence she shows in Copycat
Copycat (film)
Copycat is an American psychological thriller, starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. The film was directed by Jon Amiel, with a score composed by Christopher Young.-Plot:...
, Ms. Hunter still holds together Home for the Holidays with a sympathetic performance." In his review for the Boston Globe, Jay Carr praised the film for being "filled with juicy performances that expand resourcefully beyond what we think are going to be their boundaries, the film carries us beyond our expectations. That's what makes it so pleasurable."
USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Home has the usual hellish ritual. They come, they eat, they argue, they leave. It's the stuffing in-between that makes it special." However, in her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley criticized some of the performances: "Downey brings a lot of energy to the role, but his antics can be both tedious and distracting. Hunter has a lovely scene with her disgruntled sister, but there's no time for that relationship to develop, what with a romantic interest yet to explore." In his review for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, Peter Travers had problems with the screenplay: "It's a shame that W.D. Richter's un-Disney-ish script often slides into shrill stereotypes and sitcom silliness."