Home Alone Is Mildly Inconsistent, But Surprisingly Effective Yuletide Cinema

Welcome to 25 Days Of Christmas Pop Culture! From now until Christmas Eve, I'll be tackling one piece of Christmas pop culture! It could be a book, movie, TV special, song....so long as it's festive for this time of the year, it'll be checked out in this daily column!

I see a lot of people talking about how movies were better "back in the day", which always makes my eyes roll. People have always wanted good storytelling when they go to the cinema, that's never changed. Frankly, I'd actually say the years top movies are indeed better than they used to be. The past few years top features have included The Avengers, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Dark Knight and Toy Story 3, all excellent films. Bizarrely, the biggest movie of 1990 was not Goodfellas or Awakenings, but rather Home Alone.
That doesn't mean Home Alone is a bad movie, far from it, but it is interesting to see how huge this small film is. It's $550 million gross, adjusted for inflation, makes it the 38th highest grossing movie in history, a tremendous sum. Separated from it's financial accomplishments though, there's still stuff to enjoy about Home Alone, even if there's also lesser elements in the film. A good chunk of those weaker elements derive from the movies protagonist, Kevin, played by Macaulay Culkin.

Being the youngest sibling in his relative packed house, Kevin feels like he's never listened to or respected, to the point where he wishes he didn't have a family. So when he winds up home alone, he finds it to be the greatest thing ever. Scenes depicting Kevin just bouncing around, going to the grocery store and living on his own are the weakest portions of the film, feeling more like scenes from a bad sitcom than a cohesive narrative feature.

Thankfully, the moment the film incorporates a seemingly creepy neighbor into the proceedings, the film immediately picks up speed. The scene between him and Kevin is surprisingly well executed and helps emphasize the emotional struggles of both characters. The movie manages to display surprising emotional versatility by being able to go from this successful depiction of pathos to the wacky slapstick involving The Wet Bandits (played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) in such short time while keeping both sequences effective.

That slapstick is actually really fun to watch, especially since it avoids the heightened approach to the buffoonery that the sequel employed that keeps the affair simultaneously grounded and humorous. Once all those shenanigans are over, a nice emotional scene involving that neighbor comes along that may just be the best part of the movie, and Kevin's name is shouted in an indignant manner one last time, closing out this well known Holiday film. Is it great? No, but it is a humorous diversion that has scenes filled with extremely potent mixes of emotion and humor, a mixture that's common within the holiday season among gatherings with friends and family. That kind of thoughtfulness isn't always prominent in this film, but it's around enough for it to be mostly diverting.

Tomorrow, the Toy Story gangs first Christmas special gets a review.