Dysfunctional Family Holiday Movies!

Why do we love movies about dysfunctional families at Holiday time?  There are tons of them and they are all basically the same, with the climatic scene at the dinner table.  Saturday Night Live even made fun of the stress of the Holidays on families, with a scene at (where else) the dinner table, last week.  Christmas is almost here, and that either means spending time with your dysfunctional family, or watching movies about dysfunctional families to escape from yours.  Here are my top five that I love to watch every year!  They aren’t a exactly warm and fuzzy Christmas movie like “It’s a Wonderful Life, but they make me laugh, make me relate to them, and even realize how much I love and appreciate my own “dysfunctional” family.  Because basically aren’t we all dysfunctional?  Spill it, what’s your favorite dysfunctional  movie or holiday story?

P.S. Wanna win a months worth of Orville Redenbachers popcorn?  I know I do!  Just visit My Friend Amys blog (one you need to bookmark too!) to enter to win.

5. One True Thing(1998)
Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger and William Hurt, what else could you ask for?   It occurs over the Holidays and deals with a daughter coming home to help take care of her dying mother and learn to heal her relationship with her father.
DYSFUNCTIONAL ASPECTS: Absentee self important father, dying perfect mother, angry daughter.
“One True Thing” is an observant, unsentimental family drama in which the tears at the end were well-earned and be prepared to shed tons of them.  P.S. Read the book first!

4.  Pieces of April
Hmm I see at theme occurring here.  But this one is a dark comedy that deals with a mother dying of cancer.  Stars Katie Holmes (pre-Tom Cruise), Patricia Clarkson( who I love!) and Oliver Platt.
DYSFUNCTIONAL ASPECTS: Sibling rivalry, estranged daughter, and an abrasive dying mother.

3.  Four Christmases

Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall,

I just watched this the other day, and laughed till I cried.  This is now a classic for me, I was completely surprised at how much I liked it!  My favorite scene: When they all played a game together.

DYSFUNCTIONAL ASPECTS: Basically, after 3 years of avoiding spending time with their families on Christmas (remember, you can’t spell families without “lies”) they are forces to visit all four divorced parents.   Hilarity ensues.

2. Home For the Holidays
Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, Dylan McDermott
What can I say about this classic movie?  Fantastic acting, hilarious scenes, the aunt, the sister.  What an amazing movie.
Dysfunctional Aspects: Jodie Foster did an incredible job of showing the humor, drama, poignancy, frustration, love, loathing, fear, and comfort found in families. As exhausting as these two days were for this family, you know they’ll be back next year. Or, as Charles Durning’s character says, “There’s always Christmas”.

1.Parenthood (1989)
Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Weist,  Keanu Reeves, Jason Robards Joaquin Phoenix
I watch this movie every year and laugh so hard every time.  And then I cry.  The ending has me sobbing like a baby.  It’s the best comedic drama about the realism and heartbreak of being a parent.
Dysfunctional Aspects:  workaholics, divorce, “super”parenting, self-promotion., fathers and sons.
Best Line ever: From Grandma to (Steve Martin): she explains life to her joy of a roller-coaster over a merry-go-round… “that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited and so thrilled all together… some didn’t like it… they went on the merry-go-round… that just goes around… nothing… i like the roller-coaster… you get more out of it”. life is seen as it’s best understood… an amusement park that we all are going through. our perspective and our faith are the important factors.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Retro Cinema: Home for the Holidays
• Remake of ‘Earth’ rockets to top of box office
• In Real Life, Tom Cruise Foils the Saboteurs [Gossip Roundup]