Home for the Holidays

Jodie Foster's HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS feels like a Thanksgiving turkey overstuffed with drama, comedy and a lot of melancholy, but damned if dessert doesn't almost bail out the meal.

The cast is a holiday feast in itself.

The always excellent Holly Hunter (Always, Broadcast News) is Claudia, a art restorer who starts off Thanksgiving week by getting fired by, and making out with, her much older boss Peter (Austin Pendelton). It's the opening scene of the film and the first of many where the characters seem a bit forced by the screenplay. Is it kind of funny? I guess, but feels strange.

Claudia gets home to her teenage daughter Kitt (Claire Danes) who announces that she wont be joining her Mom for her pilgrimage back to Claudia's family for Thanksgiving Day.

After a desperate and very sad call to her brother Tommy, Claudia heads to her childhood home for turkey day. As in most holiday films, her family is an eclectic bunch, but unlike my perennial holiday favorites, a few of them aren't very appealing to hang out with.

The excellent Anne Bancroft and Charles During play her Mom and Dad, Adele & Henry. Adele is a chain smoking worry wart and meddler, while Henry rarely leaves his barcalounger unless its to move to the dining table or dance with Adele. These are two great actors reminding us of their incredible talent throughout.

Claudia's brother Tommy arrives in the manic form of Robert Downey Jr., whose partner Jack is noticeably absent. Instead, he has Leo Fish (Dylan McDermott) in tow. The energy between Downey, McDermott and Hunter is a lot of fun to watch, until Downey goes off the rails in several scenes, channeling the worst of Robin Williams in all the wrong ways. Downey later admitted that he was doing heroin during the shoot, which explains his performance that is all over the map. You see glimpses of the RDJ that would emerge post rehab, but the unrealistic, over the top moments eclipse them.

Steve Guttenberg (The Boys From Brazil, Police Academy) and Cynthia Stevenson (Happiness) arrive as Walter and Joanne, Claudia's sister, along with their two kids.

The great Geraldine Chaplin (Doctor Zhivago) is almost unrecognizable as Aunt Glady, Adele's sister who's losing her grasp on reality. Chaplin steals the movie with her Thanksgiving dinner speech about her unrequited love. Watching Durning's face during the entirety of Glady's reveal is a masterclass in acting by During.

But every perfect moment of Chaplin's scene is quickly overshadowed by the verbal and physical humiliation of another character that just feels wrong. It's as two pages of Terry Letts' brilliant script for "August Osage County" snuck into the flow, tearing Joanne apart with cruelty.

For me, it derails the film almost completely off the tracks.

But damned if Director Jodie Foster doesn't steer it back with some heartfelt moments and memories that close the film like a flawless Thanksgiving pumpkin pie at the end of an uneven meal.

By the perfect final scenes, the film's messages about love and family emerge, in spite of any missteps mid film. This one definitely gets better as it goes.

I think the more dysfunctional your own family is when you go HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS will likely influence how you feel about the film's middle portion.

Disjointed but heartfelt, uneven but well acted, we'll give it a C and not add it to the perennial favorites list.