I have an ornament like this! |
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There's something about Thanksgiving that seems to usher in the holidays for me. When Christmas decorations go up before Halloween, I bitch about it. When two of the presets on my car radio started doing Christmas songs 24/7 two and a half weeks ago, I bitched.
Now I'm listening to my collection of 968 Christmas songs and wondering which I will choose for my annual mix CD. And I'm mad that I don't have a tree up yet.
The baking has begun!
It won't last, but the feeling is here, so I'm going to embrace it. Part of that means watching movies about the holiday season. You won't find IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE in the list below—my heart and my holidays belong to comedy.
I shouldn't have to tell you to watch A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983), but maybe the TNT/TBS availability of the film has made it lose its luster. Watch it again, without children interrupting and your mom asking you to help in the kitchen. Gather around the TV as Ralphie and The Old Man do around the leg lamp. If you're not watching this annually, you're missing out on what could be some of the best two hours of the year.
If you'd like something more old-fashioned, try some Charles Dickens, but update it to THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) or SCROOGED (1988). Michael Caine and Bill Murray are fabulous Scrooges, surrounded by wonderfully comic casts. THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL was the first Muppet movie after Jim Henson's death; as much as I miss Henson, I'm glad his legacy survived.
I'm afraid the ghosts of my Christmases may be a bit more like the ones from SCROOGED than like Muppets. Some of them can be dangerous—Carol Kane ripped Bill Murray's lip really badly in their scene. Maybe he needed some beating up in real life that day.
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) is not to be missed. While the children may come and go, Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and Randy Quaid are at the top of their game in these movies. This film is successful because it plays on our primal fears—our fears of not getting our Christmas bonuses (for the few people in the world to get them) and of squirrels in the house and of in-laws. Clark sums up the angst of Christmas with the family: "Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?"
(Speaking of not getting your Christmas bonus, rewatch "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," the first full-length episode of THE SIMPSONS, which aired in December, 1989. You get to see Bart sing, Homer try to be a mall Santa, and a greyhound who's easy to catch!)
Of course, the holidays are not all about Christmas. They're about anything that gets us off work, forces us to overindulge, and brings up the possibility of horrible travel conditions. PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES (1987) is by far the best representation of the latter, as Steve Martin's character attempts to get home for Thanksgiving, only to be comically stuck with John Candy's inept salesman. This is Steve Martin's favorite film (of his) and John Candy's best.
My all time favorite holiday film is also set around Thanksgiving—HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1995). This was Jodie Foster's directorial debut. Holly Hunter plays a woman whose life falls apart right before she goes home for Thanksgiving. Robert Downey Jr. is amazing as her brother, who brings home Dylan McDermott to enjoy the misery (after showing him naked pictures of his sister). The family is rounded out by Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Cynthia Stevenson, Steve Guttenberg, and Claire Danes.
The movie not only reminds us how strange families can be, but how sometimes, just because you share blood with someone, you don't have to like anything about them. It reminds us as well that some of the people with whom we share blood can also be part of that chosen few—friends. Finally, it reminds us that only a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas isn't enough. You can't, and shouldn't always be expected to, see family that often.
It's old, but MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947—accept no remakes!), manages to capture my cynical heart every time. It was a time when Macy's fought with Gimbels, when we called the reindeer by his correct name, Donder, and when single women raising their daughters were mostly definitely screwing up. Maureen O'Hara wanted out of doing this movie, until she read the script. Natalie Wood plays her imagination-less child. O'Hara unknowingly enlists the real Santa Claus to replace a drunken sham in the Thanksgiving Day parade (Edmund Gwenn is the perfect Santa and did actually work in the parade in real life). Just as a little girl starts to believe, Kris Kringle is threatened with institutionalization for believing himself to be himself. The lawyer who takes his case will remind all us girls to believe in Santa.
I wrote about THE BISHOP'S WIFE (also 1947) in a column on "Movies That Make Me Believe." If there are such things as angels, having them in Cary Grant form would be a good idea. (Better than David Niven, who played the Bishop—they originally had Grant and Niven's casting reversed.) I most identify with a side-character—a friendly old atheist scholar who has lost the thread of his book. Well, if Cary Grant appeared to me with a never-ending bottle of wine and a lost piece of history, I'd go to church, too.
A lot of people hate LOVE 
why does anyone ever leave him in films? |
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ACTUALLY (2003). I like parts of it, and those parts are worth watching the stories I don't care about. Actually, watching Bill Nighy sing "Christmas is All Around" (set to the tune "Love Is All Around," by Wet Wet Wet) is worth it all. ("Love Is All Around" was the theme song to FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL. This film, which mocks that song, but yet embraces the ensemble cast style that made it famous, is called LOVE IS ACTUALLY ALL AROUND in the U.K.) I'm also fond of Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister. Although he wasn't the first choice for the role, it gave Richard Curtis (who wrote LOVE and FOUR WEDDINGS and directed LOVE) the chance to work with him again.
Speaking of films with some of my favorite British actors, may I remind you that BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (2001) also begins and ends with Christmas? While I've never been to a turkey curry buffet, I hope to meet Colin Firth the very first time I do. I would never ask for another Christmas present again.
Want a little war with your Christmas? JOYEUX NOEL (2005) is based on a true story. It's Christmas Eve 1914 on a French field. The Germans, French, and Scottish forces defy all orders and decide to call a truce for the day. Are there subtitles? Yes—they're speaking German, French, and English with Scottish accents!
If these last choices have been too saccharine, pick up THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993). My son and I watch it when we decorate the tree each year. It's a masterful work of imagination and creation. Jack is voiced by two actors—one for the lines and one for the singing (Danny Elfman, the composer, is the latter).
So grab your eggnog, start up the DVD player, and think of me (and skeleton dogs).
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| Comedies with Dr. Karma |
Every other Wednesday
Dr. Karma discusses all things comic, from the classics to what may become classics. Laugh with, but not at, her, please.
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| Karma Waltonen |
Dr. Karma is a silly, nerdy know-it-all, but in a good way. She brings all her overeducation to discuss that which truly matters: comedy. As some famous guy once said: “And if I laugh at any mortal thing, ‘tis that I may not weep.” Or something like that.
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