I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)

reviewed by
Jamie Peck

I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS Reviewed by Jamie Peck

Rating: **1/2 (out of ****) Walt Disney / 1:28 / 1998 / PG (minor language, brief near-nudity) Cast: Jonathan Taylor Thomas; Jessica Biel; Adam LaVorgna; Gary Cole; Eve Gordon; Lauren Maltby; Andrew Lauer; Sean O'Bryan; Lesley Boone Director: Arlene Sanford Screenplay: Harris Goldberg; Tom Nursall
There's a yule log in every fire, a turkey on every table and a live-action, family-oriented flick from Disney in every multiplex, so it must be the holidays. Examples of that latter seasonal standby include such deadly fare as "The Santa Clause" and "Flubber," but "I'll Be Home for Christmas," this year's ornamental offering from the House of the Mouse, appears to be a step in the right direction. While no "It's a Wonderful Life," this jolly little slice of fruitcake plays like a surprise gift from the folks that you don't necessarily want to return on December 26th.

Bemoaning "I'll Be Home for Christmas"' lack of originality is pretty much a waste of time and effort, since you're aware going in that this isn't the type of film to break new ground as far as narrative or characters are concerned. And though things here have higher sugar content than a sleigh full of candy canes, this tinsel-laden tale's simple-minded pleasantness and sporadically clever writing make it awfully hard to dismiss in Scrooge-like fashion.

At least it's a given that young female fans of "Christmas" star Jonathan Taylor Thomas will refrain from bah-humbugging on the way out of the theatre; they'll presumably get their allowance money's worth of the photogenic "Teen Beat" coverboy and erstwhile "Home Improvement" star due to the fact that he's in just about every scene. JTT comfortably plays a suave California college student named Jake, who, after crossing some campus bullies in a botched attempt to help them cheat on a history test, is left for dead in the desert clad in only a glued-on Santa costume.

That's a bummer, mostly because Jake was promised a '57 Porsche by dad (Gary Cole) if and only if he'd make it to his family's New York home in time for Christmas Eve dinner. What's worse, his girlfriend (pretty Jessica Biel) is traveling with the studly mastermind (Adam LaVorgna) of the plan to deter Jake from vintage automobile paradise. Typical road movie situations are given a festive spin as our hero trails his gal pal and attempts to get from one side of the country to the other.

As cliche, cloying and laden with plot coincidence as it can be, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" musters up more than a handful of good scenes and decent laughs. Worth the price of admission alone is a sizeable story thread that finds JTT helping a cop (Sean O'Bryan) rekindle a dampened romance with his waitress wife; the payoff borders on imaginative. A brief bathroom interlude as Thomas tries out his Santa voice on an extremely honest little boy is a rib-tickler. For once, a non-animated Disney release is more ho-ho-ho than ho-hum. And for that, we can be thankful.

© 1998 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit The Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ "As my colleague Gene Siskel observed, ‘If the third reel had been the missing footage from Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons," this movie still would have sucked.' I could not have put it better myself." -Roger Ebert on "Little Indian, Big City"

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