Flick of The Day: Home Alone

Oh well, back again for one more pre-Christmas movie. John Hughes was one of the true greats of modern comedy writing providing scripts for some of the funniest and best loved films of the 1980s and 1990s including Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and todays film; Home Alone.

It is easy to write this film off as another mass market family comedy, as it was such a mammoth hit which fathered two infinitely inferior sequels. That would be to overlook a very fine script and loathe though I am to admit it, a very likeable characterisation of the young Kevin McAllister by Macauley Culkin. If you are one of the very few who have yet to see this gem, the story is a very simple one: A young boy named Kevin is accidentally left behind when his family head to France for Christmas. When he realizes they've left him "home alone," he learns to become self sufficient and eventually defends the family home from a pair of bumbling thieves played with great comic timing by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci.

For all its great comic moments, and there are some very fine set pieces such as the various traps Kevin lays for the witless burglars, this film lives and dies depending on the likeability of the young actor playing Kevin. Too cute and the film becomes saccharine, too mature and the film is unrealistic but Macaulay Culkin brought just the right amount of mischief to the rule to make it enjoyable. This is a great film and I urge you to check it out over the holiday period if you get a chance.

Still the most succesful live action comedy of all time, it is often forgotten how big a hit Home Alone was in 1990. This kind of commercial success should lead to all involved having secure careers for years to come however this was not the case. This was the height of Macaulay Culkin's fame, and perhaps because he simply grew up, he hasn't appeared in anything substantive since the late '90s.

John Hughes, perhaps overawed by his success took a step back from Hollywood, indeed he didn't a direct another film after 1991's so-so Curly Sue. He moved back to his home-town in Illinois, eventually becoming a farmer, rarely if ever granting interviews and largely retiring from the public eye. He was said to be deeply shaken by the death of his close friend John Candy from a heart attack and consequently never returned to Hollywood. Hughes died of a heart attack on August 6, 2009 while walking in Manhattan where he was visiting his family. He was 59 years old and largely forgotten by the Hollywood mainstream.

So, there it is. As I said if you get the chance, Home Alone is well worth your time as are all of the John Hughes canon. Merry Christmas!