Give thanks for Thanksgiving movies
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| Hannah and her sisters |
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, what better way to get ready than to have a little pre-holiday film festival? I guarantee there’s a movie out there that’ll get you ready for every aspect of the day. Turkey and trimmings cooking? Check. Holiday shopping? Check. Complicated family dynamics and dysfunction? Check, check, check.
Miracle on 34th Street, that old chestnut, is a great place to start. An old man, Kris, (Edmund Gwen) shows up at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and out-Santas the actor hired to play the part. He’s such a knock out that the special event’s director (Maureen O’Hara) hires him to play Santa at Macy’s for the season. However, he believes that he’s the real Santa Claus, leading to all sorts of complications like threats of institutionalization and even a court case. But Kris wins the heart of O’Hara’s Santa doubting little daughter (Natalie Wood). And slowly but surely, O’Hara starts to think that the old guy might just be who he says he is. With it’s light, satirical take on consumerism, this film is just the thing to get you in the spirit if the thought of starting your holiday shopping makes you want to skip Thanksgiving all together.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have a much darker take on the Thanksgiving and family celebration. Ang Lee’s film The Ice Storm is set in an upper middle class Connecticut town in the seventies and follows two families over a Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Featuring a great ensemble cast including Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Christina Ricci, Tobey MacGuire and Joan Allen, the film depicts these families struggling to deal with the tremendous social and political changes going on at the time. The titular ice storm comes along symbolizing the characters inability to make connections with each other. And the storm also causes a tragedy that may ironically bring about a thaw in their relations.
A bit of a lighter take on the dysfunctional family theme can be found in Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays in which the family conflicts are mostly played for laughs. Holly Hunter is Claudia, a single Mom about to lose her mind. She just got fired from her job (and after said firing chose to make out with her boss) and her high school age daughter is going to spend the weekend with her boyfriend. Claudia heads home for Thanksgiving to hang with her overbearing parents and other assorted relatives. The turkey ends up in someone’s lap and two fighting family members are sprayed down with a hose on the lawn. Will all of this family time get Claudia back on track or just push her over the edge?
Now, if going off the deep end is your idea of holiday fun, check out The House of Yes. Marty (Josh Hamilton) brings home his fiancée (Tori Spelling) for Thanksgiving to meet his crazy family. Twin sister, Jackie O (a sensational Parker Posey) is obsessed with both, well, Jackie O, obviously, and her dear brother. She’s not exactly happy that Marty’s come home with a rival for her affections. This little black comedy is certainly not for all tastes. But it has some interesting twists and turns and a whole lot of snappy dialogue that make for a worthy watch.
Great dialogue is just one of the reasons that Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters is probably my favorite on the list. It’s got to be one of Woody Allen’s warmest films to date, filled with great characters and a wise understanding of the complex bonds between families and sisters in particular. Bookended by Thanksgiving celebrations, the film depicts a year in the life of three sisters played by Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, and Barbara Hershey as they work out there problems with love, careers, and each other. It’s a movie that’s full of little details that feel just right. Shot during the period when Woody was involved with Mia, he based the story loosely on her real family, used her apartment for the main set, and cast lots of her family members in supporting roles and as extras. This is Woody’s most hopeful film. The characters make mistakes, fall in and out of love, fight and argue, but seem to have found some measure of happiness and contentment by the time Thanksgiving celebration number two rolls around.
And an honorable mention goes to a film that doesn’t exist. The recent double feature by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, Grindhouse featured fake previews for exploitation films, including one by Eli Roth called “Thanksgiving.” It’s a great little parody of horror films with a holiday theme (like “Silent Night, Deadly Night” the infamous scary movie with an ax wielding Santa). Despite being just three minutes long, this one’s not for the squeamish! You don’t even want to know what ends up on the table in place of the turkey. Roth has plans to make a feature length film based on the trailer, but for now you can catch the trailer on the upcoming special edition DVD release of Grindhouse.
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