Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is an eight year old kid who keeps getting pushed around and picked on by his family, especially from his older brother Buzz (Devin Ratray). After getting into a fight Buzz, Kevin is sent to sleep on the third floor of the house all alone. All fed up with his family treating him like crap, Kevin lays in bed wishing that his Family would just disappear. Luckily Kevin gets his wish because due to heavy wind that causes the alarm clocks to reset, the family soon discover that they over slept and starting rushing to the airport to catch their flight to Paris where the McCallisters will be spending Christmas vacation. They successfully catch their plane before it is about to take off, but they forgot that Kevin was sleeping on the higher floor and leave him behind. Kevin wakes up to discover that the house is empty and that there is no one insight and since Kevin still sees the cars parked in the garage (not knowing that he and his family would be taking shuttle vans to the airport) he believes that his wish has come true. At first everything seems to be going great for him, but his joy and carefree life doesn't last long until he realizes that he lives next door to a creepy old man who he heard is a murderer (Roberts Blossom) and that two burglars played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are planning to rob his house. As Kevin prepares to defend himself, his Mother (Catherine O'Hara) realizes that she has left him behind as the family was rushing to get to the airport, and tries to make it back home to be with him. As a kid, I really loved this movie and after watching it again as an adult, I still love it.
It's very risky to make a good kids movie because it's hard to find a child actor who can actually act, and if Culkin wasn't casted as our lead character the film would probably fall flat because Culkin is the main ingredient of why the film's so enjoyable. The material that's written for Culkin is funny and the film does have a good story-arc of our main character realizing the importance of family, but a kid can easily screw all that up by making material that's written to be funny and emotional, neither of the two. Culkin doesn't screw it up at all. You can tell that he's putting a lot of heart into his role by trying really hard with the emotional stuff that he has to work with, while having a lot of fun with the humor that he's given. He doesn't at all feel like he's half-assing his role or looks confused with how he should react, he just plays the role just as professionally as the rest of the cast in this movie do.
What I find to be also great about both the character and performance is how every aspect of him is balanced out. He has the innocence, cuteness, and even the naivety of being a regular kid, but there's still enough intelligence, coolness, and courage to make us root for him and wish that we were like him when we were kids. The situation itself is also every kids dream, having the house to yourself with no parents or siblings to tell you other wise, and being the hero to take on two crooks. But as we enjoy watching Kevin take over and defend his house, we still see him slowly grow-up from his experience by taking responsibility and realize the importance of his family. And seeing Kevin's transformation from his experience does feel genuine instead of the film feeling like it needed some kind of forced and corny moral to excuse Kevin's carefree behavior, and the slapstick violence that we witness in the film. It's also interesting to note that if you watch the movie again, you'll notice a subtle visual of detail of Kevin's transformation of him growing up, by having his earlier scenes being shot from above his head by making him look small and defenseless to later on filming Kevin's scenes from below to make him appear taller showing that he is ready to take on responsibility. That's a clever directing choice that I give the film’s director Chris Columbus credit for subtly putting in.
Catherine O'Hara as Kevin's Mom who's the film's secondary protagonist gives just as great of a performance as Culkin does by having the perfect balance of humor and emotion towards her determination to get back to her son. You feel the stress of what her character is going through; you understand her desperation and the feeling of guilt that she has for leaving her son behind. But as you're emotionally touched by her journey, you can't help but laugh at some of her over the top expressions and some of the things she says. Her best moments in the film are the scene when she realizes that she left Kevin behind; when she's on the phone trying to tell the Police to check on her son; and when she gives her speech about the lengths she'll go too to get home to her son because the energy and facial expressions that O'Hara brings in those scenes are really where she shines the best. As for the cast that plays Kevin's family, they're all just as fitting for their roles as Culkin and O'Hara are with theirs. I can't go through each and everyone of them since there's so many of them, but the ones who stand out to me the most are John Heard as Kevin's Father; Gerry Bamman as the mean and cheapskate Uncle Frank; Kieran Culkin as Kevin's little cousin Fuller who apparently loves wetting the bed (and being Uncle Frank's son is it really that much of a surprise?); and Devin Ratray as Kevin's idiotic bully of a Brother Buzz. Without these characters and performances, I don't think the whole family would stand out as much or make you feel Kevin's suffering. The best part about the family is despite that in almost every scene when we see them together they're always fighting, arguing, and acting bratty, you still get the sense that they do love and care for each other from the way they bond together and think about Kevin when he's left home alone, which seems very believable and realistic.
While I'm on the topic of talking of supporting characters, I guess I might as well talk about the rest of the supporting characters, before I talk about the villains. Honestly, I couldn't find a single supporting character that I found to be pointless or not as good as the rest of the cast because in all honesty, they all fit and play their roles just as good as everybody else does, and the crazy part is there's so many of them. You have Ralph Foody as the James Cagney like gangster Johnny in the old gangster movie that Kevin watches called "Angels With Filthy Souls" (a parody of the title "Angels With Dirty Faces" starring James Cagney); Ken Hudson Campbell as one of the most unconvincing actors to ever wear a Santa suit; the careless idiotic cops (one played by Larry Hankin); and so on and so fourth. But the two supporting characters that stand out the most (no counting anyone in Kevin's family) are Roberts Blossom as the creepy old next door neighbor, and John Candy as Gus Polinski, "The Polka King of the Midwest". John Candy as the Clarinetist Polka player only has three scenes in the movie, but he steals each and every one of the scenes he's in with his humor and John Candy charm. As a matter of fact, the majority of his lines (if not all) are improvised, which takes a comedic genius like Candy to come up with some really funny lines of dialogue and make it sound natural. I also really love seeing Candy and O'Hara work off each other, they just have really fun chemistry together, and it seems fitting too since the two were good friends that previously worked together on the Canadian sketch show "SCTV". Even the idea of Candy in the role of a Clarinetist Polka Player is undoubtedly a reference to his "SCTV" character Yosh Shmenge, who was a Czechoslovakia Clarinetist Polka player with Eugene Levy playing his Brother Stan. Robert Blossoms as the creepy next door neighbor plays out the scary scenes extremely well. When you look at his cold stare, you too would probably stay just as far away from him as Kevin does. Still I will admit as creepy as he acts, the twist of him being a gentle kind old man was a bit predictable. With that said though, when we do find out that he is a gentle old man, the scene that he and Kevin share together is so heart warming and hits the film's moral of family so hard on the nail, that it's beautifully touching. Now for those of you who've seen the film still wondering why he looked at Kevin so menacingly before they talked; well just remember that earlier in the movie, Kevin imagined his furnace coming to life to eat him.
Last but not least in terms of performances there's Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as the two comical idiotic burglars Harry and Marv. I read a piece of trivia that Pesci and Stern didn't think the film was going to do well and decided to just go out over the top without taking the film that seriously, and what we get in exchange is over the top comedic gold that's one of the main reasons why so many people enjoy this movie. Pesci and Stern make such a fun duo with their over the top performances, and humorous writing that they have to work with, that it's hard not to get so much as a chuckle out of them. While the two are both idiotic, they each have their own indefinable personality. Pesci is the short hot tempered one who's the brains of the duo, while Stern is the tall and childish sidekick, and as cliche as that concept is, they really do sell out this cliche Saturday Morning Cartoon concept ever so flawlessly. Seeing these two constantly yell, argue, and insult each other with their different personalities is so fun to watch that actually I would honestly love to see more of scenes with them together working off each other. I mean could the film at least keep the scene when Harry and Marv are driving in their Van singing their own rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", instead of deleting it. I know it adds nothing to film at all, but it's just so enjoyable to watch these two interact and sing a dark rendition of this jolly Christmas tune.
I think many can agree that the highlight of the movie and the best sequence with Kevin at his coolest, and the burglars at their funniest is when Kevin sets booby traps in his house on Harry and Marc. There are people out there that hate the slapstick in the film finding it to be forced, unrealistic, and even at times brutal, and while I can understand their reasons why, personally I think it's great! The traps that Kevin sets up are creative that lead to a great pay-off. The sound effects sound brutal. The comical reactions and screams from Pesci and Stern have a perfect balance of looking and sounding funny, while you can still sense the pain that they are feeling. Watching Kevin taunting these two criminals throughout the sequence is quotable and triumphant. And seeing Joe Pesci trying really hard not to drop an F-Bomb like he usually would as he goes through all this abuse is hysterical. Does it look violent at times? Yeah, but it doesn't get to the point where we see any blood. Is it unrealistic that they manage to survive all this abuse like "The Three Stooges" would? Absolutely, but the film already had plenty of unrealistic moments that were played more on the comedy element before this sequence. Like Kevin sledding down stairs that don't line up with the door; or Kevin operating the Mannequins to make the burglars think that his family are still home, despite that he has no idea when they would show up; or the Pizza man not suspecting that he's talking to a TV with the difference of sound quality when he's delivering a Pizza to Kevin, or NOT even calling the cops for that matter after thinking that he was being fired at. The film does have a heartfelt message, but it still plays itself out to be a slapstick family comedy that's not trying to be all that realistic with it's comedy or even it's premise (come on, the whole family sleeps in, and don't notice that Kevin is missing until midway through the flight), and the scenes and things that Kevin does are so humorous and fun to watch that you can't help but suspend your disbelief to laugh at the film's unrealistic slapstick and comical scenes as the film wants you too. If you don't find any of these scenes funny where you can't suspend your disbelief to get in on the fun that the film wants you to have, or find the traps that Kevin sets to be graphic instead of funny that's understandable, but for me and a lot of other people, I think these scenes are the best and help make the movie so entertaining and enjoyable!
What I find fascinating about this movie is when you think about it, it didn't need to be a Christmas movie. It really could've just been a regular family comedy that it could have just taken place at any time of the year, but since the film decided to make it a Christmas family film it actually does fit with the holiday perfectly since one of the many things that we associate with on Christmas is family. The Christmas look that the film carries is beautiful. It really does capture that wonderful Christmas look and feel through the snow; decorations; Christmas lights; the Christmas movies that the characters sit around and watch; Christmas songs and a Christmassy score composed by John Williams; and having almost every single scene with the colors red and green being together. The feel and imagery all just spell out nothing but Christmas.
As unrealistic, violent, and even at times mean spirited as some people may find this film to be, I still think it holds up as the Christmas classic that many people claim it to be. The casting is perfect. The characters are likable and a lot of fun to watch. The story and it's themes about family is both funny and touching. The Christmas look and feel that the film carries is superb. The jokes are great. The dialogue is quotable. The slapstick is hilarious. And the score by John Williams is amazing. It's really one of the greatest Christmas movies that I've ever seen and it makes me glad that it still holds up as a Christmas classic after all these years.
RATING 5/5
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