"Great Holiday Entertainment"
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What You Need To Know:
The PG rating for this entertaining, heartwarming movie comes more from Jake’s conniving ways and the dangerous practical joke played on him than from its very mild foul language. Although there are only two references to Jesus Christ, who is the real reason for the season, the movie has no distasteful sexual references and plenty of positive family values. Jake changes his selfish ways, learns to help others and reconciles with his stepmother and father in a charming, uplifting way. A delightful script, tight direction and enjoyable performances help make this funny movie one of the best holiday movies in years
Content:
(BB, L, N, DD, M) Moderately moral worldview of selfish character who repents & changes his immoral ways; 1 possible obscenity silently mouthed, 3 mild exclamatory profanities (“Oh, my God,” “Oh, God” & “for God’s sake”) & four mild vulgarities; no sex but kissing, reference to what it would be like to wake up to someone after marriage, single man buys plane tickets for beach vacation with girlfriend, & single man wrongly thinks rival might have slept with girlfriend but woman forced man to wear sweaters, coats & mittens while they shared a hotel bed; upper male nudity & hero pulls towel off college student who has just taken a shower but object blocks the view; no alcohol use or smoking but jocks drug college student & leave him stranded to get revenge; and, miscellaneous immorality such as lying, stealing, cheating on test, practical jokes, parent tries to bribe child, & placing value of material objects & personal happiness above family obligations & duties to others, most of which are effectively rebuked during the movie, plus one offhand comment that illegitimately compares so-called “homophobia” with racism & sexism.
More Detail:
Family-friendly holiday movies are hard to come by these days, but Walt Disney Pictures has hit one out of the park with its new movie, I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. A delightful comedy about a scheming college student who learns the errors of his ways, this movie contains a moderately strong moral view that sets it apart from most PG-rated movies.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas of ABC-TV and Disney’s HOME IMPROVEMENT series plays Jake, a scheming college student in Southern California who, with his smart young friend, fakes IDs for some jocks and helps them cheat on tests. Jake’s father, played by Gary Cole, wants Jake to come home to New York for Christmas, something that Jake failed to do last Christmas. Jake failed to come home because he doesn’t like his stepmother Carolyn. He thinks it was unseemly that she married his dad only 10 months after Jake’s mother died. Thus, Jake coldly rebuffs Carolyn’s attempts to be friendly over the telephone.
Jake also doesn’t want to come home this Christmas because he has a beach vacation planned for himself and his girlfriend, Allie, played by Jessica Biel of TV’s 7TH HEAVEN. Unlike Jake, Allie wants to go home to New York to be with her family. She gets upset and refuses to come with him when she learns about the two swapped plane tickets to the beach resort.
Meanwhile, Jake’s father can think of only one way to get his mercenary son home for the holidays – bribery. He tells Jake that if he’s home by 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, he will let Jake have the red Porsche classic car that he and Jake have worked on for years. His dad’s offer changes everything, so Jake switches the plane tickets back to the New York destination. Happy about the change, but not knowing the real reason, Allie agrees to meet him the next morning.
Unknown to Jake, his rival for Allie’s affections, a crude but nice-looking guy named Eddie, ruins Jake’s plan to help the jocks cheat on a test. The jocks are fed up with Jake’s failures, so they and Eddie kidnap Jake, drug him and leave him in the middle of the desert with no wallet, ID or cash. The next morning, Jake wakes up stranded, dressed in a Santa Claus suit with a Santa hat and beard glued on his head. Allie thinks he’s abandoned her, so she has to hitch a ride back east with Eddie. Jake has to hitchhike and connive his way back to New York in a comedy of errors that has him meeting up with a bunch of eccentric and amusing characters who both help and hinder him. Along the way, he learns to repent of his scheming ways and to be kinder to others, especially his own family.
The PG rating for this entertaining, heartwarming movie comes more from Jake’s conniving ways and the dangerous practical joke played on him than it does from anything else, even its very mild foul language. Although there are only two non-threatening references to Jesus Christ, who is the real reason for the season, the movie has no distasteful sexual references and plenty of positive family values in the arc of its story. In the movie, Jake changes his selfish ways, learns to help others and reconciles with his stepmother in a charming, uplifting way. He even helps repair a couple’s broken marriage and reaches out to his rival Eddie.
Audiences may find this funny movie to be one of Disney’s best holiday movies in years. Its positive moral values are aided by a jaunty script by Tom Nursall and Harris Goldberg and focused direction by Arlene Sanford. Sanford’s opening credit sequence alone is almost worth the price of admission. Jonathan Taylor Thomas gives a friendly, easy-going performance that is harder to do than it looks. He has fun with his role, as do Jessica Biel as Allie, Adam LaVorgna as Eddie and Andrew Lauer as a goofy thief named Nolan.
I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS mines territory wherein legendary director Frank Capra (IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, MEET JOHN DOE and IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT) found so much success. We hope that the creators behind this movie will return more than once to this kind of movie making in the years to come.
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