Home for the Holidays(1995)

Favorite scenes or lines? I love the scene at the airport and realized you can't wait for your family or loved ones at the gate anymore. Thanksgiving should be a lively one this year! Will you be an island of liberalism in a sea of conservatives or the other way around?

• Haven't seen the film in a long time and found it off-putting when I saw it, but probably because I was expecting more of a comedy based on the ads I saw - the film is actually very bitter in many ways. But I do recall a brief scene with Holly Hunter and David Strathairn as an old boyfriend whose life didn't really go anywhere. But it was oddly touching.

• That scene near the end where Hunter's angry, miserable sister tells her something like, "If you weren't my sister, I probably wouldn't even speak to you if we passed on the street." She's the kind of person who would probably run down her husband in a Jeep because he didn't vote for Romney.

• The talent in this movie is amazing. Charles Durning, Ann Bancroft, RDJ, Holly Hunter, Dylan McDermott. The Thanksgiving dinner scene is hilarious with the organic bird, the crazy aunt singing and Gutenburg's character gettng outraged when the turkey lands in hateful sisters lap. LOVE IT

• Aunt Glady was played by Charlie Chaplin's daughter.

• I like when the sister is on the stair master and she wants to left alone because its the only part of her day that she really enjoys.

• Is this the one where Robert Downey Jr plays a gay guy?

• Yes.

• Is this the movie where Sarah Jessica Parker plays a bitch?

• THE FAMILY STONE is the film where SJP plays the uptight bitch.

• The uptight sister is great because every family has that one person who always plays the martyr. "I can't do everything!" "Nobody asked you to."

• Holly's sister is currently mourning Obama's second term.

• Downey Jr is so clearly high during this it is distracting. "Spin, Mommy!"

• Fantastic cast. Claire Danes is in both HftH and TFS.

• Although downey jr went off the rails in this and jodie foster allowed him to the film has grown on me each time i see it. Love the part when holly hunter tells her sister "we dont have to like each other we're family".

• I felt sorry for the sister. Downey and Hunter were just annoying twats. the sister was annoying too but they thought they were so superior - and they weren't, just two losers. And in The Family Stone I felt sorry for the SJP character because the family were all deluded, self-involved idiots, especially the sister.

• Where you been, we ate already!??

• I saw this movie in the theater when I was 8 years old. I understood at the time that Jodie Foster directed it, but thought it came off as pretentious overall.

• Jodie, in the backseat, looking at the guy in another car, sitting in the backseat. The look they give each other is priceless.

• I like that scene when Holly Hunter and Sam (in his wheelchair) go out on the frozen lake and Holly ice skates while Sam holds the baby and watches. It's so sad when she's looking for his applause after doing a nearly perfect triple salchow, but there is only silence. Then in a panic she slips and stumbles across the distance in the ice to get to him, but he's slightly slumped in the chair - already dead.

  Dumb%20Dora

• Isn't it just perfect?"

  Brtiney

• Jodie is a bit smug toward "people like that", but I have to say the production design of the house looked completely authentic.

• R18 meant Holly Hunter, not Jodie. (...in the front seat and momma Anne Bancroft in the back seat with a cigarette.) Great, great scene. Thanks, R18.

• [quote]I saw this movie in the theater when I was 8 years old. I understood at the time that Jodie Foster directed it, but thought it came off as pretentious overall. ... at 8 years old? Bitch please

• I love this movie - in my family I am a cross between Robert Downey Jr and Holly Hunter, my sister is the Cynthia Stephenson character kinda. I love the soundtrack.

• R22 - nice catches.

  R18%2C%20not%20drunk.%20Really.%20

• [quote]That scene near the end where Hunter's angry, miserable sister tells her something like, "If you weren't my sister, I probably wouldn't even speak to you if we passed on the street." The angry sister (Cynthia Stevenson) doesn't say that line. Holly Hunter says that line to her instead. I think it's telling you misremembered that. Most of the people I've known remember this movie fondly always want to make the Cynthia Stevenson character into the clear villain of the story; but from her point of view the Holly Hunter character doesn't pull her weight enough in the family, and the Robert Downey, Jr. character of the brother is a disaster (and he absolutely ruins her holiday). She's uptight and can be extremely unpleasant, but at the same time not everyone can live their live as randomly and as scatteredly as the RDJ character does (and he's a mess). I think Foster wanted to make the Stevenson character the villain too, but the screenplay is actually smarter than that: one of the best scenes in the movie is near the end where there's a scene of all the characters having fun separate from one another, and you see that the Stevenson character and her husband (Steve Guttenberg) can actually experience genuine joy together when separate from the rest of their family. It shows very nicely that most people are not the villains in their own lives, and that families are a bunch of people who tend to outgrow each other so that we can;t always have fun when we're together.

• "Get inside...before we're on the evening news!"

  Bancroft%27s%20crooked%20wig

• How can you say that Foster wanted to make her the villain when she put that scene, that shows a different side to her (Cynthia's character) at the end? Foster wouldn't have included that final scene. That was her point... Talk about going around to not give her credit.

• Wonderful cast. Anne Bancroft as the mother -- perfect. The Ice Storm is another favorite Thankgiving Day-themed movie. All of us who have simply had enough 'football' and who hate having to talk to our families do have something to look forward to next Thursday.

• Wasn't Cynthia Stevenson playing herself?

• I love Cynthia in almost everything she does.

• r26, I think you misremember the scene - at least partially because the quote is off and they each say something mean to each other. But it is the Cynthia Stevenson character (Joanne) that tells Holly Hunter (Claudia) that she would throw away the phone number if they just met on the street. Claudia: You don't know the first thing about me Joanne. Nothing. Joanne: Oh likewise, I'm sure. If I'd just met you on the street, if you gave me your phone number, I'd throw it away. Claudia: We don't have to like each other Jo, we're family. Joanne: Do you mind? This is the only thing I do all day that I like. Skip to the 2:20 mark in the attached.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D41AdJu4gvgE%26feature%3Drelmfu

  not%20R2

• R18, that is the scene that I remember most as well. I've had moments like that when I'm just looking out wondering if other people are as miserable as I am in the car with my family.

• Was there ever a porn version called "Homo for the Holidays"?

• r8, the guy in the back seat of the car is Jodie's friend and the rumored father of her two sons.

• [R19] wrong movie. it was maybe round about? with Dreyfuss..but also a wonderful movie.

  anon

• Hated that movie. Much preferred the TV movie version of "Home for the Holidays" from the 1970s, in which Miss Sally Field visited home and was threatened by a Christmas serial killer!

• It's a small detail, but the bratty niece (Cynthia Stephenson's character's kid) tap dancing around the house chanting "step-ball-change, step-ball-change." It made sense to me that the kind of woman Joanne was would have a smug little shit like that.

• I love this movie. I have it on DVD and watch it every year at this time. I know - MARY! But I love it. I also watch The Family Stone every year - it's another movie I love. I don't know what about this time of year that makes me so schmaltzy. Maybe because I wish I had a big family that got together for crazy, dysfunctional holidays.

• who would want to be part of either family depicted in those movies, R39? The Stones thought their shit didn't stink and it did to the proverbial high heaven. Who wanted to be like anyone in the family of Home for the Holidays? You got the quirky nut, the loser who tries to sound sane, the self-righteous bitter sister. Yeah, fun times.

• "The angry sister (Cynthia Stevenson) doesn't say that line. Holly Hunter says that line to her instead." No. The sister says that to Holly.

• Count me in. I love the treadmill scene. It just screams tension: one sister walking fast, the other standing still. Plus it reminds me of [italic]Happiness[/italic].

  Bengali in Platforms

• Agree with R40. I haven't seen The Family Stone, but I originally saw Home for the Holidays when I was a kid because my dad showed it to me basically as a way of saying "See, a lot of families suck and are difficult to deal with, not just ours. Let's just laugh about it." It was effective and I loved it. I'd never imagine that it would make anyone desire a large family to spend the holidays with, though.