If you are drawn to "Home for the Holidays" because the television ads make it look like a rollicking farce about a Thanksgiving family gathering, you may be in for a bit of a shock.
This dark comedy-drama directed and co-produced by Jodie Foster (she does not appear on-camera) is more serious-minded than that. But the real surprise is how much of the humor falls flat and how often the shifts in tone feel contrived or uncomfortable. (This is especially true in light of Foster's much more satisfying directing debut, "Little Man Tate," a few years go.)
Holly Hunter stars in "Home for the Holidays" as Claudia Larson, a single mother who loves her job at a Chicago art museum. As the film opens, Claudia is mentally preparing herself for the annual flight to Boston to spend Thanksgiving with her parents . . . and other assorted loony relatives.
But bad omens loom. First, she comes down with a head cold — and then she is axed from her job. If that's not enough, Claudia's 15-year-old daughter Kitt (Claire Danes) drops her mother off at the airport while blithely announcing that she intends to lose her virginity over the weekend while Mom is gone.
Things go downhill from there . . . in more ways than one. And when Claudia's boss (Austin Pendleton) says, "I hate the holidays," he's expressing the attitude of this movie.
On the plane, Claudia telephones her gay brother Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.) and urges him to spend Thanksgiving with the folks, though he has already begged off. Trying to cram everything she's been through that day into his answering machine, Claudia cries that she desperately needs an ally.
Upon her arrival in Boston, Claudia is met at the airport by her overbearing, chainsmoking mother Adele (Anne Bancroft) and her overweight, oblivious father Henry (Charles Durning). Later, we meet her disturbed and unhappy sister Joanne (Cynthia Stevenson); Joanne's conservative and equally unhappy husband Walter (Steve Guttenberg); their bratty children; and Adele's sister, batty Aunt Glady (Geraldine Chaplin).
To Claudia's delight, Tommy does show up, and he brings along a friend, Leo Fish (Dylan McDermott). Naturally, everyone assumes Leo is also gay, though it's fairly obvious that he is not, and that Leo and Claudia will eventually get together.
Overstuffed with subplots, the film is somewhat episodic in nature, giving each of the characters a few scenes to develop some depth. But their eccentricities seem overly mannered and the big gag scenes are not played strictly for laughs.
The latter is best illustrated by the moment during Thanksgiving dinner that is getting the most TV play, as Tommy carves the turkey and it shoots across the table, landing in Joanne's lap — a slapstick moment that is not really played for laughs, instead taking on a tension-filled twist. Another awkwardly unfunny scene has Walter, Tommy and Leo playing football in the front yard, which turns into a brawl and concludes with Henry turning the garden hose on them. Other jokes, such as Aunt Glady's flatulence and Tommy's propensity for taking naked (or nearly-naked) Polaroids of Claudia, similarly self-destruct without provoking much laughter.
Suffice it to say that "Home for the Holidays" probably won't evoke memories of "You Can't Take It With You" or "The Man Who Came to Dinner."
There's nothing wrong with doing a dramatic exploration of the horrors of holiday gatherings, of course — and we can all identify with being uncomfortable, unhappy and/or tense during Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners with relatives who drive us crazy. But the balance of comedy and misery that Foster and screenwriter W.D. Richter ("Brubaker," "Late for Dinner") are obviously striving for here seems to elude them, despite the mighty efforts of the cast. (And boy, does that tacked-on happy-ending ring false, considering all that has gone on before.)
Among the latter, the most successful members are Hunter, who manages to evoke our sympathy amid all the dysfunctional chaos depicted here, and Downey, who does provoke some laughter despite, rather than because of, his constant juvenile antics.
"Home for the Holidays" is rated PG-13 for profanity, vulgarity and some marijuana smoking.