http://www.viewpoints.com/Home-for-the-Holidays-reviews Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:39:03 GMT Latest reviews about Home for the Holidays http://www.viewpoints.com/Home-for-the-Holidays-review-4f9c4 <p>Home for the Holidays is not your average feel-good holiday movie, but instead deals with all the things that make holidays difficult.  In many ways, Home for the Holidays is reality with a strong dose of hilarity, at least for people who don't live in a sentimental Norman Rockwell painting.  </p><p>If you are looking for a perfect ending after an entire feel good heartwarming movie, then this isn't for you.  If your holidays are more akin to something from cops or Jerry Springer, then this will be a little tame for you.  But if you are looking for a movie that runs down the center between dysfunctional and fun, then this is worth watching.</p><p>Directed by Jodi Foster, starring Holly Hunter, Robert Downy Jr., Dylan McDermott and many more fine actors and actresses, this movie focuses on a family gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving and all the stress, fun and fights that ensue.  </p><p>This is a great film if you are interested in family dynamics; you have the parents, wise in their own ways, but aging,...</p>... Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:39:03 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Home-for-the-Holidays-review-4f9c4 kcp2273 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Home-for-the-Holidays-review-32f07 <p>My latest Netflix rental was <strong>Home for the Holidays</strong>. Starring a lot of people I enjoy in movies (Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning), it sounded like an off-beat look at a dysfunctional family at the holidays. However, after a fine start, it spiraled into disappointment and stayed firmly there.</p><p>This film had a good start and decent-enough premise, but it's sunk by wildly annoying characters. Claudia (Holly Hunter) loses her job, gets a bad cold and learns her teenage daughter is about to have sex for the first time, all on the day Claudia has to go to her parents' home for Thanksgiving. Claudia adores her idiot brother Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.), who is so annoying and anti-social that you want to kill him. He badly needs a haircut, too. The other relatives come from central casting: The ditsy father who is mostly in another world, the chain-smoking alcoholic mother who knows what's best for everyone, the perfect and brittle sister with her boring banker...</p>... Mon, 19 May 2008 14:55:54 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Home-for-the-Holidays-review-32f07 bkovacs 2