I never noticed as a youth but Kevin (Macauley Culkin) is an obnoxious ill mannered child in an entirely obnoxious and ill mannered family. Even the extended family of cousins, aunts and uncles are uniformly vile.
So it is understandably a relief for the 8 year old when everyone else up and leaves one morning for a long holiday in Paris. The point being that they were supposed to take the lad along but forgot. Seriously, I know it’s a movie, but in a family of five overlooking even one kid seems unforgivable.
Regardless, the film suggests this is normal. It even has one character admit that it happened to them also… Like really?
Thanks to the parents ignorance and the local police force’s incompetence, Kevin must look after himself for a few days at least. Initially he bounces about the home doing things that would ordinarily be frowned upon – though in the experience with the family thus far probably not – and indulging his every 8 year old fantasy, which largely means unlimited junk food and tv.
This changes though with the arrival of two burglars played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci, perhaps the two least equipped criminals in cinema. As they fumble and flub their way into Kevin’s minimum security home, Kevin decides he must defend his property
Thankfully for him the unrealistic tone continues, as the reality would likely be a swift beat down followed by the home being ransacked. Instead neither criminal thinks to look down, left or right before they take a step or enter a room, remarkable given the continued punishment that this lack of special awareness imposes upon them.
This is all hilarious. Well let me restate that. Home Alone works on two levels; the shut off the brain entirely and laugh whenever the film clumsily demands it, or on the level of switching off the tv early to avoid your precious childhood memories being tarnished beyond repair.
My 9 year old loved it. Something about a small kid doing what he wants without reprisal and treating adults with disdain appeals to him. I sincerely hope he doesn’t revisit Kevin’s adventures in a quarter century to see how cool it looks then…
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. I know it made squillions, but I pretty much loathed Home Alone.
