An interesting idea amusingly played out

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2007)

Home Alone was the top money-spinner of 1990 and thrust Chris Columbus to the A-list of Hollywood's filmmakers. I'm not exactly an enormous fan of Columbus because there is something sickeningly twee that seems to infect just about everything he gets his hands on. Home Alone is one of his more successful endeavours, although I tend to think that's more to John Hughes' screenplay which is full of tiny amusements rather than anything on Columbus' part.
After all, this is not the first time Hughes has tackled the nightmares of holiday travel. He previously directed the quite wonderful Thanksgiving comedy Planes, Trains & Automobiles. He got a tremendous amount of mileage from what could have been a thinly plotted scenario, and enlivened the film through rich, nuanced performances from Steve Martin and John Candy. A film of equal heart and humour. A true, comedy classic.
Home Alone is not quite as successful. If it had been directed by the sure hand of John Hughes instead of the simplistically banal hand of Chris Columbus, it might have elevated the film's premise to classic status. Instead, its a film of amusing diversions and interesting ideas trying to get out. But when they do, Home Alone is a very good film indeed.
We really don't need to go into specifics about the plot. Home Alone had such an impact on people the world over its entered the English language. Indeed its the intriguing concept at the heart of the film that drew so many people to it in the first place. An eight year old boy, Kevin McCallister is left at home by his neglectful parents during the Christmas holidays.
While they're in Paris, Kevin has free reign of the McCallister house. That must be the dream of any child. The freedom to do whatever they want. Whenever they want. No parents to hold them back. Or discipline them when they step out of line. The whole film rests on little Macaulay Culkin's shoulders. And he does quite well too.
I don't think Culkin is all that much of an actor. After all he peaked at a very young age, and his career went into steady decline after that. But his obnoxious precocity wasn't quite as pronounced here. There was still a little bit of innocence left in the boy, which is what gives the film its conviction. Without it, Home Alone wouldn't work.
Which is exactly the reason why Home Alone 2 didn't work. By that time, Culkin was 12 years old and his child-like innocence had long since left him. His ego had thoroughly taken over, and the film seemed a much more calculated attempt on Columbus' part to replicate the things that made the first film work so well.
Hughes' quite well written screenplay puts Kevin through his paces. I enjoyed watching the shifts in little Kevin's emotions. First off is Kevin's astonishment. He wished for his family to disappear, and so they did. Well they've only gone on holiday, but to a child's mind it could seem like wish fulfilment. This leads to unbridled joy at living life on his own terms.
But gradually the reality of his situation begins to sink in. This leads to loneliness, fear, and eventually horror when the McCallister mansion is targeted by two dimwitted burglars, Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci & Daniel Stern).
The point where Kevin must defend his home by outfitting it with booby traps from top to bottom provides one of the best sustained 15 minutes of comedy you'll ever see. I did find it hard to swallow that Kevin could come up with so many different booby traps from blowtorches to tripwires and even Micro Machines. Especially with only an hour to work with. But Columbus directs these scenes with such breathless energy it will have you laughing harder than anything else in the film.
There are some smaller pleasures to be found elsewhere. The film adds an external character of a snow shoveller Kevin believes to be a mass murderer. But in a nicely written scene, he turns out to be a lonely man estranged from his family. I like this scene because it very nicely sums up Kevin's predicament. What started out as an answer to his prayers is beginning to feel more and more like a punishment. Being alone can be fun for awhile. But eventually we want it to end. Its a very overlooked scene.
I also liked the scenes with Kevin's mother, played by Catherine O'Hara. Her desperately trying to get home to Kevin is pleasantly reminiscent of Planes, Trains & Automobiles. All the more so because she even ends up travelling with John Candy along the way. He plays a character not all that far removed from Del Griffith, and the interplay between the two feels natural and warm. Like PTA, Candy proves to be O'Hara's ticket home.
Home Alone has its flaws here and there. But it is a reasonably polished film, and it makes you laugh at all of the right moments. It's not quite the holiday classic Planes, Trains & Automobiles was, but you're bound to find something fun about it, and kids will most definitely love it. Since they're the intended target audience, Home Alone has accomplished what it set out to do. You really couldn't ask for anything more.