Home Alone (1990) * * *

 

Directed by:  Chris Columbus

Starring:  Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Catherine O'Hara, Roberts Blossom, John Candy, Devin Ratray, Kieran Culkin

Home Alone wasn't made as a testament to realism, but as a silly yet sweet Christmas movie with enough laughs to push it over the finish line.  A good number of plot contrivances had to be set into motion for a plot like this one to work.   I'm sure you all know the plot by now, but I'll recap.  Kevin McAllister (Culkin) is a ten-year-old boy accidentally left home alone during Christmas week because his family, in a rush to get to the airport to make their flight to Paris, simply forgot him.   Kevin's mother Kate (O'Hara) is on the plane when she discovers her error and spends the rest of the family using any means of transportation necessary to return home, including hitching a ride in the back of a rental truck with a polka band led by "Polka King of the Midwest" Gus Polinski (Candy).   Kate is unable to reach the police because the telephone service is down in the area due to a storm.  How convenient.  

Kevin at first thinks it's pretty cool to be home alone.  He can eat what he wants, go where he wants, eat junk food all day, and watch unlimited television.  Two boneheaded thieves named Harry and Marv (Pesci and Stern) canvass the neighborhood in search of homes to rob whose occupants are away.  They mistakenly believe the McAllisters are all gone, but Kevin catches on to their scheme and defends his house by any means necessary when the thieves attempt their break-in on Christmas Eve.  How does he do this?  By rigging devices, contraptions, explosions, and having the wherewithal to know just where the thieves will be to set off Kevin's booby traps.  He has unlimited resources at his disposal, just like Wile E. Coyote did in his failed attempts to take down the Road Runner.

The slapstick is in the Looney Tunes spirit and Harry and Marv take a beating, but it's all in good fun, and the two dopes simply don't know when to cut their losses.   Kevin, of course, grows to miss his family and prays he would see them again on Christmas Day.  He also connects with his elderly neighbor who, rumor has it, may be an axe murderer.  We know he isn't and Kevin has a meaningful conversation with the kindly man (Blossom) all about redemption and second chances.  Pretty deep stuff for a ten-year-old.  Culkin, however, is up to the task of carrying the movie on his shoulders.  For a few years there, Culkin became a huge movie star, until suddenly he wasn't after appearing in some bombs and his cuteness inevitably wore off as he grew into a teenager.  

Home Alone has evolved into an enduring Christmas staple seen more for its spirit than its slapstick.  It is a fantasy film in every fiber of its being, and it's well-made enough with a likable Culkin to make it work despite its issues.