Home Alone

Nothing can bring me back to being a little kid as much around Christmas time as to seeing Home Alone. I can remember seeing this movie as a young kid in the theater on Christmas Eve or it may have been around Thanksgiving and just laughing throughout the entire movie. While at the time I did not realize the moral that was brought out in the end about how important it is to be with family and the importance they play in our lives. The concept of Home Alone is truly a simple one that while pretty far fetched to actually happening it really makes for great comedy. Kevin is accidentally left at home when his entire family leaves for France for the Christmas Holidays, and ends up protecting his home anyway necessary from two idiotic burglars. While there are those out there that severely bash Home Alone for me it takes me back to being a little kid and that is why it has become such a popular yearly movie to watch around Christmas time.

Macaulay Culkin plays Kevin McCallister, the attitude spouting eight year old early on in the film that before going to bed wishes that this family would disappear so that he would no longer be picked on by so many different family members. This was the film that helped launch Culkin into being a child star. He played the role perfectly with the moments of being a scared 8 year old perfectly to the moments of comedy with great timing. The moment in the grocery store when the cash register employee is quizzing him about where his mom is and he retorts with"Ma'am, I'm eight years old. You think I would be here alone? I don't think so." Trying to get the best of Kevin we have Marv and Harry "the wet bandits" played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. As a duo these two work together perfectly and you believe them to be burglars that have struggled in the past, but feel that with so many of these families leaving for the holidays that the entire street will be easy pickings for them. Pesci and Stern have a great ability to blend humor, pain and aggravation perfectly. Pesci's character Harry is very strict, easily agitated and picks on Marv for a great many things. Marv, the stereotypical 'tall, stupid one,' is completely stupid. He does things that would make a hamster blush. Yet he is the character I have found many like the most, mainly because he is so stupid you have to feel sorry for him. Stern brings a great trait to the character of Marv, and I am very pleased he got the part. It's a hard choice to decide which baddie is better, so I just say I like them both the same.

John Hughes wrote this film, and it is no wonder. It is just like Hughes' humor. It mixes emotion, belly laughs and a warm-hearted ending all into one little bundle called a movie. John Hughes' films, in my experience, are usually very good, mainly because he approaches films at a very classic level. He doesn't resort to crude, kid jokes. He almost always levels everything out perfectly in his scripts, and nothing is different here. Chris Columbus in his direction is spot on and it really has the feel of many of Hughes and Columbus' earlier films in the 80's. Also it is interesting to note that both of these have a hankering for setting some of their films from the eighties around Christmas time i.e. Gremlins, Christmas Vacation and Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Yet, even with this they are able to pull these movies off without too much sentiment or moment of gooey love feelings. the aspect that really helped to set this movie to being such a Christmas time classic was the musical score from John Williams. His music elevates this film from a simple slapstick family fare to something more magical and even with a touch of seriousness.

The story for Home Alone is a fun one and ends up being pretty successful when you consider they were able to make two pretty successful sequels with very similar stories. I think the moment when Kevin wakes up and realizes he is all alone is a thing that every kid wishes at one point or another, and he  proceeds to do everything and anything he was not allowed to do before, including eating ice cream in the morning, watching violent gangster films, jumping on the bed, wrecking his brother's room, and having some fun with a BB gun. Kevin McCallister is the hero of the story. He's not just any kid, he's a very smart one. He also knows all about the intentions of the "wet bandits" Harry and Marv and prepares them lots of unexpected surprises. Their lives won't be easy with Kevin defending his house. Sure, they are the villains and as such they get what they deserve, but they do suffer a lot too. We almost feel sorry for them.

Home Alone is a movie that while there are those who are very harsh on it, it ends up being one that will always take me back to being a little kid. Although this movie is a comedy that provides a lot of side splitting laughs from funny one-liners to the physical comedy of Marv and Harry going through the house with booby traps galore, Hughes still wrote a movie that in the end has a great message

-The Movie Man