HOME ALONE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sadistic violence

Rated:

Before he was coaching young British actors on how to battle trolls in bathrooms and confront basilisks in castle dungeons, director Chris Columbus produced one of the highest grossing Christmas films of all time. Despite its flagrant sadistic humor, families treasure this comical tale of a young boy pitted against two bumbling thieves over the holidays. Kevin McCallister (Maculay Culkin) is tired of being the youngest member of his family. Eight years old and forced to endure the constant berating of his siblings, the arrival of Christmas only makes it worse because it brings his cousins into town. The entire family (more than a dozen in all) are headed to France this year to spend time with a wealthy European relative. The house is in pandemonium the night before the plane trip and Kevin winds up sleeping alone in the attic as punishment for a family squabble.

Having pronounced that his family are all losers and he hopes never to see them again, Kevin wakes up the next morning to an empty house. Unbeknown to him, the family overslept and managed to forget him in the mad rush to the airport. His mother (Catherine O'Hara) is halfway over the Atlantic before she discovers one of her children is missing. Enjoying his newfound freedom, Kevin makes the most of liberty: he watches the trashy movie he wasn't allowed to view with the others the night before, he makes a sickening banana split dripping in syrup, and rides his sled down the front staircase, out the door, and into the yard. Living alone is marvelous... except for the monsters in the basement and the fact that it gets dark every night. Add onto that two thieves, Marv and Harry (Daniel Stern, Joe Pesci), who have been scoping out the neighborhood for weeks. An entire block with no one home, and best of all, Kevin's house: a virtual goldmine of possibilities.

The intrepid little boy keeps them at a distance for awhile with clever schemes but on Christmas Eve they determine he is alone and come back for revenge. With the rest of his family stuck in France, the phone lines still out, and no one in the neighborhood home except the sinister man who shovels salt onto the sidewalks and is believed by Kevin to have murdered his entire family in the '60's, Kevin will be forced to defend himself, and his home, from malicious invaders. The result is a holiday comedy known for its unbelievable scenarios and sarcasm. Don't get me wrong, my family loves this tale of Christmas cheer and flaming torches just as much as the next, but I would dissuade very young children from viewing it due to the amount of disrespect shown between characters, as well as the violence, which is surmounted by Kevin purposefully setting up booby traps to impale, pound into a pulp, and burn the intruders. They range from such malicious ideas as tarring the basement steps and then concealing a nail just where someone is likely to put their foot, to rigging up the back door so that a blow torch ignites the hapless person's head as he enters.

A bee-bee gun is put to good use, first on action figures and then the groin and head of Harry and Marv. Kevin ices the steps, forcing the villains to take numerous falls. He sets off fire crackers, beans them in the head with falling paint cans, clouts them on the head with an iron, heats a door knob so that it burns into flesh, and cuts a rope that they're attempting to scale across, causing them to slam into an outside wall and fall to the ground. Aiming for a tarantula, Marv hits Harry multiple times in the chest with a crowbar. A man takes a snow shovel to two men, knocking them unconscious. A boy is nearly hit by a car. On capturing Kevin, the thieves threaten him with violence and attempt to bite off his fingers. Kevin watches part of a gruesome movie in which a man is gunned down, then rewinds and uses the feed several times to frighten off visitors. There are a half dozen profanities. Kevin's older brother shows an interest in the nude beaches of France, and has several issues of Playboy magazine in his stash of private stuff. Harry falls down the stairs and lands on top of Marv in what might be construed as a suggestive position.

Family respect is nonexistent in the McCallister family. Kevin sasses his parents, his older siblings, and other figures in authority, who in turn treat him like scum. There is a redeeming point in the fact that Kevin comes to appreciate his family and wants them to come home. He also endeavors to clean up the mess made of the house, and his mother learns the importance of paying attention to all her children, not just the favorites. For impressionable children, this is not a wise choice. They may be tempted to mimic Kevin's ingenious ideas and bad behavior, leaving the audience with the wish that the film included a "do not try this at home" warning. But for older individuals it's a funny comedy in which two thieves get their just due.