Thanksgiving is a time for just that: giving thanks.
We’re supposed gather with our families to give thanks for the people in our lives and the fact that we are able to live the lives that we live. What we usually end up giving thanks for is that we only have to see these people a few times a year.
These are the five best movies that show that not so functional side of Thanksgiving dinner.
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1995)
Directed by Jodie Foster
Written by WD Richter
Based on a short story by Chris Radant
Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) really doesn’t want to go home for Thanksgiving, but she doesn’t have much choice.
Her daughter (Claire Danes) is spending it with her boyfriend, so there’s no one at home. Besides, she just lost her job and made out with her boss. Life is pretty much over, anyway. Might as well make it complete and spend time with your parents, right?
Of course, she doesn’t want to tell her crazy parents about her job situation. Maybe her brother (Robert Downey, Jr, just before his big resurgence really started) can deflect some of the bad juju by finally coming out of the closet.
Or he might just tell everyone her secret.
Home For The Holidays is one of those forgotten holiday movies, and that’s pretty unfortunate because it’s pretty damn funny. Yes, the parents (Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning) are pretty over the top, but isn’t that how we think of our families?
They’re all crazy, but we love them.
And that’s really the point of Home For The Holidays.
Everything can be terrible, but your family is there for you. They’re your cushion. If they’re as funny as these folks, even better.
THE WAR AT HOME (1996)
Directed by Emilio Estevez
Written and based on a play by James Duff
Emilio Estevez has always been the underrated Sheen. He’s a decent actor and actually a really good director.
The War At Home is among his best films as director or actor.
When Jeremy Collier (Estevez) comes home from Vietnam, no one really understands what he’s going through. His sister (Kimberly Williams) tries her best, but their father (Martin Sheen) for some reason just doesn’t want to acknowledge that his sone is having problems. He should be strong enough to get over whatever happened to him over there. “Be a man!”
Mom (Kathy Bates) doesn’t help by treating Jeremy like a little boy. “Just forget about it and it’ll all be better, baby.”
It all comes to a head at a dramatic Thanksgiving dinner where all of the family secrets come out. It’s rough to watch, but The War At Home is an honest portrayal of what we did to the boys who came home from Vietnam. PTSD needs treatment, but we just didn’t see it.
THE ICE STORM (1997)
Directed by Ang Lee
Written by James Schamus
Based on a book by Rick Moody
Ang Lee has pretty much perfected the “family drama,” beginning with some of his first films in China. The Ice Storm wasn’t his first English-language film, but it was among his first and it’s still one of his best. It’s about two families in the early 70s just trying to have a normal Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately, the sexual revolution gets in the way.
Mikey Carver (Elijah Wood) just wants to grow up and get a little closer to sex, but he’s just too damned odd. When he’s faced with Wendy Hood (Christina Ricci), all he can think about is being a kid for just a little bit longer.
Meanwhile, Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) is having his own problems with the girl that he’s in love with (Katie Holmes, who is also in the Thanksgiving movie, Pieces Of April). The parents aren’t any better. Ben and Elena Hood (Kevin Kline and Joan Allen) are falling apart partly because Ben is having an affair with Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver). Their lives go right ’round the bend when Janey and her husband, Jim (Jamey Sheridan), throw a key party. It’s all pretty dryly funny in its own sad little way.
Then the titular storm comes along and changes everything. The Ice Storm is one of those movies that you probably shouldn’t watch when you’re already depressed…or if you’re happy. But, strangely enough, you should watch it. It’s a pretty accurate portrayal of how a lot of families communicate with each other: they just can’t.
Not to mention that Christina Ricci gives one of the best Thanksgiving prayers ever.
ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES (1993)
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by Paul Rudnick
Based on characters created by Charles Addams
And speaking of Christina Ricci, this Addams Family sequel is one of those rare instances when a sequel is better than the first.
It’s about a woman (Joan Cusack) coming between Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) and the rest of the family. She has the Addams send Wednesday and Pugsley (Ricci and Jimmy Workman) away to camp, mainly because they’re onto her ploy.
This movie isn’t a Thanksgiving movie per se…but it has one of the best Thanksgiving scenes ever put on film. The camp counselors force the Addams kids into a play all about the first Thanksgiving. It’s supposed to be the stereotypical story of the Indians and Pilgrims being friends and teaching each other their ways. It all goes according to plan until Wednesday changes the script with, “Wait! We cannot break bread with you…”
It all goes to glorious hell from there.
The movie also co-stars Christina’s Ice Storm co-star David Krumholtz. It’s a small world in Thanksgiving Movie Land!
PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (1987)
Written and directed by John Hughes
I really resisted putting this one on the list because it’s on EVERY Thanksgiving list. But it’s just so damned good. (And it’s been far too long since I’ve seen Pieces Of April or Avalon to write about them.) And it basically fits with the theme: these guys end up being dysfunctional brothers.
Neal Page and Del Griffith (Steve Martin and John Candy) don’t know each other.
At all.
They just happen to be going the same way at the same time and are forced together by circumstance. In fact, Neal pretty much hates Del with every fiber of his soul. Del is a pig in every respect of the word and Neal is…well…not. He’s prim and proper and just wants to get home to his family. Along the way, the two men form a bond that can only be formed on the road.
As hilarious as the movie is, it’s also a little bit sad and, like all great John Hughes films, a lot sweet.
It’s quite possibly the best Thanksgiving movie ever made.
