The first Christmas classic of the 90's!

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2017)

I know this is a "triple F" and "triple C": feel-good fun family and classic Christmas comedy... so you'll forgive me to be a triple ass and introduce this review with a downer opening. Here it goes.
We're in 2017, John Candy is comedy legend (sadly of the dead sort) since the mid-90's, John Hughes died in the same untimely fashion eight years ago, followed by Robert "Old Man Marley" Blossoms two years later and John Heard, the father with such a lovable face, has died this summer. Sorry to go on this eulogy but even Roger Ebert and Gene SIskel who gave two thumbs down to the movie because of its implausible narrative and sadistic treatment of the villains, are also gone. This is just to show how this 1990 classic is already surrounded by an aura of nostalgic sadness.
Of course, Chris Columbus, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are alive and much alive but look at Macaulay Culkin, another sad example of the devastating effects of child stardom, although he's probably richer than I but he didn't exactly follow the 'Natalie Portman' path, not even the Anna Chlumsky one.
Whenever I see him on the screen, I can't help but think of how this cute little face has turned to, but there are so many sad things about the lives that contributed to the movie that it almost plays like a sort of shelter for laughs, a time capsule for December 1990 or the whole early 90's, where we can comfortably enjoy Christmas in the lovable and cozy McCallister house and forget about the real stuff, the time of a movie.It's funny that there's so much escapism in such an enclosed movie.
Besides, watching "Home Alone" again in 2017 allows us to appreciate a time where even a good old-fashioned comedy could hit the box-office jackpot and be the highest grossing movie. No superheroes, no Transformers, no magical superpowers, the (r)evolution was on march, sure, but it didn't take much at that time to draw audience to the theaters, what counted was a simple concept and an appealing main character. The concept here is simply terrific: what would happen if a boy was left alone in his home? and during Christmas holidays at that, and when the kid is played by such an adorable and talented kid as Macaulay Culkin, half the work is done. There's also an interesting implication, every kid would love to be alone in such a big home (granted he's got enough to eat or buy food) but how about when it happens at the very time where you count on the presence of adults.... even for selfish reasons.
I concede that John Hughes didn't really try to make an existential plot out of the concept, and picked the easy way, which was a confrontation between the boys and bad guys... but what bad guys!
As Hitchcock said, a film is as good as the villain and Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern form a very interesting variation of 'Laurel and Hardy', 'George and Lenny', 'George and Junior' or 'Pinky and the Brain', the interaction between the two burglars while not reinventing the wheel, is the perfect foil to little Kevin's quick wits, agility and ability to come up with the most ingenuous devices in order to 'defend his home'. I think it's safe to consider that the film was already a winner once they got the concept, the kid and the villain. The rest was just a sort of icing on the cake, what kind of booby traps to install in the house, how to make it 'impossible' for the parents to reach their kid or for him to get help, and of course the 'spirit'... otherwise it wouldn't be a Christmas movie.
So of course, it's going to be implausible, with such a title as "Home Alone", you either have a comedy or a horror/thriller and if the movie had to be 'realistic', it wouldn't have taken more than three hours (movie time) to get Kevin out of the house and arrest the burglars. But we wouldn't have a movie either, we wouldn't have the 'Playboy' scene, the after-shave moment inspiring the iconic recreation of the 'Edvard Munch' painting with Kevin's trademark scream, whose only match was Marvin's shrill arachnophobia reaction. The film is a Christmas classic because it has filled that over-the-top category, if you want a movie that recreates the fun of Christmas in a realistic way, you have the no-less iconic "A Christmas Story", but the concept of "Home Alone" could only work with that level of slapstick. AndCulkin's performance is so good it even conveys a sort of edgy attitude, he's not your typical kid either, but he's still convincing enough as a kid.
It's not just a matter of suspension of disbelief, but of "let it go" for the sake of innocent fun, of course, watching this right now reveals some baffling contrivances we couldn't spot where the film came out, yes, we know the supposedly shovel murderer isn't a bad guy, we know Kevin relies a lot on the assistance of luck and perfect timing, we know it will all come down to the powerful family reunion and Catherine O'Hara provides the emotional arc of the film. Yes, it's true Marv and Harry aren't so bad they really deserve all the hurtful stuff that happen to them, and Kevin's scream can get annoying at times, but the film is closer to a live-action cartoon than a realistic comedy.
And there is no way for "Home Alone" not to make it in any Top 10 of classic Xmas movies, but maybe I'm biased because it was totally the kind of movies we used to watch countless times as kids to the point I always identified Tchaikovski's "Nutcracker" music as the 'Home Alone' theme.