Home Alone is one of our generation's much-beloved Christmas movies... and I'm not entirely sure why.


Plot: Kevin McCalister is the horrible, precocious child of a horrible, horrible gigantic family that has no likeable members. Due to a series of mix-ups, Kevin accidentally gets left "home alone" when the entire gigantic extended family leaves for a Paris Christmas adventure. While Kevin's Mom struggles to get home to save him despite holiday traffic problems, Kevin enjoys being on his own -- until a pair of burglars try to bust into the family home. At that point, it's up to Kevin to unleash his child genius/murderous rage on them all in order to save Christmas.

The Main Thing Wrong With This Movie

What I give to this movie is that it looks nice, it has pleasant music, and some neat cinematography (it is a John Hughes movie, after all). And who wouldn't want to spend Christmas in that beautiful, snow-covered house, on that beautiful, glistening, snow-covered street?

Aside from Kevin's idiot family, apparently.But the major problem with this movie is that I don't like any of the people in it. Oh, I don't mean the actors -- I have nothing against them personally. But the characters are horrible, horrible people, up to and including our child main character, Kevin McCalister. Yes, his siblings/cousins treat him terribly -- but he is a monster in return, so you don't really feel sorry for him when they're mean to him and when he gets left behind.

John Hughes must have thought this kid sreaming
was hilarious.This is probably the fundamental flaw with the movie. If the main character, Kevin, was just a bit more likable -- if you spent a bit more time going, "I feel sorry for that kid," or, "What a sweet kid," rather than, "I wonder if there's some way I can bend time and space in order to spank this kid?" you would be genuinely concerned when the burglars show up. The part that's up for debate is whether that's the fault of the script, or the actor (aka Macaulay Culkin). I mean, when you start rooting for the villains who want to burglarize a home and murder a child -- clearly, there is a problem with the film.

And honestly, even though Culkin was admittedly riding his looks for the majority of his childhood acting career, I feel like most of the problem here is with the script. If the character Kevin had spent a little more time saying or doing likeable things and less time saying and doing precocious brat things, he would have been a better character -- and that has nothing to do with the skill of the actor. (Note: They actually made an attempt to rectify these things in Home Alone 2, which lends further credence to the notion that it's a script problem, not a "kid actor" problem. Not that Home Alone 2 doesn't have its own issues, but that's a whole other discussion.)

It's Just Not Funny Enough

Okay, I'll give it to you -- there are funny moments in this movie.
Actually, this moment alone is the single funniest
part of the movie, hands down. No competition.... But there aren't enough funny moments in this movie. Most of the really funny moments are crammed into the slapstick kid vs. burglars fights at the end -- and the rest of it is cringing at Kevin's family being awful and Kevin being awful.


Minor Ending Issues (**SPOILERS**)

The heart of the movie, of course, is about the bond between Kevin and his Mom; Kevin fighting the burglars, although that's the thing that everybody watches the movie to see (because it's the funniest part), is really ancillary to that.

So, yes, Kevin defeats the burglars and Mom gets home and they share a heartwarming moment -- and, although Mom apologizes for accidentally abandoning Kevin, Kevin does not once apologize for being a little butthead and causing himself to be left behind (despite the fact that Kevin's family's Christmas is still essentially ruined because of Kevin. This is also rectified in Home Alone 2, leading me to believe that I'm not the only one who thought that fact subtracted a bit from the film).
(**End of SPOILERS**)

Ultimately
Most of the things I like about this movie are the way it looks and the way it sounds. The characters are extremely unlikable, and it's just not funny enough. I can understand having a sentimental attachment to the film (especially if it came out during a formative period of your childhood)... but other than that, it's more of a curiosity than anything else -- a curiosity that it was so terribly popular despite the issues I mention above.

Disagree? Please tell me why! I'm honestly perplexed as to why it's so popular.

MOSTLY NO