Enjoy three of the best movies about home and family.
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Just as they’re anticipating the grand 1904 World’s Fair, the Smith family of St. Louis must consider a serious change: Papa has been offered a job in New York. Will their idyllic existence be torn up by this new development? In this beloved Technicolor classic, home is a powerful presence, not just in the beautiful period set created on the MGM back lot but also in the intensity of feeling and sense of place (author Sally Benson based the story on her own childhood). The great cast is led by two extraordinary turns: Judy Garland as the lively middle daughter, and Margaret O’Brien — in one of the best-ever child performances — as the youngest daughter “Tootie,” whose Halloween initiation with the neighborhood kids is an unforgettable sequence. Garland sings “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and if it seems like the movie is in love with her, there’s a reason: She would later marry director Vincente Minnelli. Warm and funny, yet melancholy around the edges, Meet Me in St. Louis is almost a collective dream of an American home — even if it never existed quite like this.
Dan in Real Life (2007)
Maybe it was mis-marketed as a slapstick Steve Carell comedy, but this film merits a second chance. Carell plays a single dad who takes his daughters to the annual Burns family Thanksgiving weekend. Based on a five-minute conversation — but what a conversation! — he’s convinced he’s met his soul mate (Juliette Binoche) while en route to his parents’ home. Of course, the soul mate turns up at the homestead on the arm of his brother (Dane Cook), which is going to make the weekend very complicated. The film’s got lots of silly gags, but what makes it work is the authentically sweet-and-sour mood of the family gathering, all played within the wonderfully rambling Rhode Island house where the action is set. Writer-director Peter Hedges also did Pieces of April, another low-key film about family and holidays.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
In the singular vision of director Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel), running away from home seems an almost sacred duty. That’s how passionate adolescents Sam and Suzy (played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) see it, anyway; on a certain pre-arranged day in the summer of ’65, they meet in the wilds outside their New England homes and share an adventure away from the grown-up world. Anderson’s sympathy for these two — who soberly go about creating their own new home at a seashore campground — is so great that the adult characters (played by the likes of Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, and Bruce Willis) pale by comparison. People love to call Anderson’s films “quirky,” but what strikes you about this portrait of youth is how authentic the behavior is within this wacky, stylized realm — even when the dialogue sounds cracked (“I love you, but you don’t know what you’re talking about”), it carries the ring of truth. No wonder this film touched a nerve in audiences well outside the indie world.
