Movie Info
Movie Info
- Director
- Jodie Foster
By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine
“I should go back and add a review to Home for the Holidays,” film critic Ed McNulty told me around Thanksgiving 2023 as we were discussing holiday films. “There aren’t nearly as many good Thanksgiving movies as there are Christmas movies—and this one just seems to get better with time, doesn’t it?”
It sure does!
At least twice over the past decade, this bittersweet comedy has been ranked as the No. 1 best movie to see at Thanksgiving by the film critics at The New York Times.
In 2019, The Times’ Jason Bailey wrote that this movie is just so “relatable” to so many viewers as Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) heads home to see her family at the lowest point in her life—and, wonder of wonders, she comes away discovering love and hope. But, Bailey writes, the film continues to attract fans because of the many gems in the jewel-box of an ensemble assembled by director Jody Foster. That includes: “pleasures of Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning dancing to Tom Jones, and, bonus, Robert Downey Jr. sporting a vintage, post-Hugh Grant floppy ’90s guy haircut.”
Ed never got to add this review to his considerable database because he died in September 2024. So, this recommendation of Home for the Holidays becomes the first “new” film we are adding to Ed’s database of film reviews.