Review: Home Alone

#115 - Home Alone


Home Alone is a classic film about a boy who is unknowingly left behind when his family goes on vacation to Paris. Kevin McCallister is an 8-year-old boy who gets treated like he's unwanted. One night, after a big blow-up with his family, Kevin wishes that he didn't have a family anymore. The next morning, he wakes up, and his entire family is nowhere to be found. He thinks he has wished his family away, when in reality, they rushed to the airport and forgot about Kevin. Kevin tries to manage without his mom and dad, and he does really well until he notices two men robbing his neighbors houses. He takes it upon himself to stop them when they hit his house on Christmas Eve. Hilarious antics ensue, and Kevin stops the burglars. On Christmas morning, Kevin's family finally makes it home to see him - his mother being the first to arrive because she's been trying to hitch a ride back home since the moment she realized she left her son at home alone. Kevin realizes the value of his family and never takes them for granted again.

Home Alone is such a great film. It released in 1990, and it is still being watched and loved by millions. It's such a heart-warming story of a kid thinking he doesn't need his family, but then realizes family is everything. What child didn't go through that phase? The phase where they feel like they get attacked for every little thing they do wrong, and they wish for a day when they don't have to listen to their parents, and their siblings just vanish from the face of the earth. I feel like this movie realistically portrays how a young child would handle being left home alone...until the burglars, Harry and Marv, break in to the McCallister's house. That entire scene is mega hilarious, but also mega unrealistic. Seriously, if an 8-year-old child who has been alone for a few days overhears robbers say they are coming to his/her house at 9PM, what would really happen? They would call the police, and the police would be hiding out waiting for the burglars to return. They get arrested. End of story. However, if that happened in this film, we would miss out on an absolutely classic scene between the Kevin and the "Wet Bandits." I don't think there's a scene out there that is more easily recognizable than the break in scene. It's staged fantastically. I also think that Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci were perfect casting decisions. They're such complete opposites, that it's comedic gold on screen.
I love that casting discovered Macaulay Culkin as well, because I could not imagine Home Alone without him being Kevin McCallister. He's such a little spitfire, and that's why everything crazy that Kevin does throughout the film becomes believable...even the break in scene. He's a kid that thinks he can outsmart everyone and anyone, so for him to set up this elaborate plan instead of immediately calling the police is something that may actually happen with a child that stubborn.

Since I did JUST watch the movie, I noticed a small mistake. When Kevin is running home as the clock is striking 8:00 the night that Marv and Harry are supposed to break in to his house, he runs up onto the porch and swings the door open...so you're telling me that his house has been unlocked the entire time he was out and about in town - talking to Santa, going to church, talking to the crazy old man next door. And Marv and Harry return to the house exactly at 9:00...just like they said? Yeah right. If I were a burglar, I would have run to grab food and then sat in the van stalking the house. They would've noticed Kevin not lock the door, and then BAM, they would've had that place cleared out before Kevin returned. PLUS, when Kevin does return at 8:00, he throws a bucket of water on the steps to freeze them...that water is not going to freeze enough to trip someone in an hour...sorry, kid. Maybe if you lived in Antarctica or something, but Chicago isn't that cold. That's really it though - and it's something super small that bothered me...and I didn't even notice for the past 24 years of watching this film.

Overall, there is no better Christmas movie than Home Alone. It instills the meaning of family while also having that loving Christmas feeling to it.


I give Home Alone 4.5 out of 5 stars.