Syntaxtual Healing

Home Alone 2…it’s pretty much exactly the same as Home Alone, but in New York. That being said, I wanted to see if my original review still applied here…so I edited it to fit the sequel. New text is in bold.

Home Alone, the movie where a kid complains about his family vacation so much, he gets to go on his own. Literally. (I guess the literally doesn’t quite work as well here)

Ok, maybe not literally, but to him he literally gets his wish and goes on his very own vacation. Haven't we all wished for this now and again? How much fun it would be to have run of a new city, no one to bother us, watch whatever we want, eat whatever we want? But, just like Kevin, most of us soon realize that being alone at the holidays is a lonely existence.

Except when we come to the realization, we're not also engaging in wacky hijinks with a pair of bumbling toy store robbing con artists.

(On a side note, am I the only one that wants to punch the uncle repeatedly? Every time he speaks I want to reach into the TV and sock him in the face.)

I'm not going to get into the caper aspect of the movie, but rather want to say that the moments I really love in this movie are the calm moments between all the humor, all the goofiness. Kevin asking the airline attendant what city is outside the window; his amazement over the fact that the owner of Duncan’s Toy Chest lets the kids play with the toys in his store; and his time in the park when he realizes that the crazy lady covered in pigeons isn't scary after all.



I love these moments because they mirror those moments of calm we all try to find during the holidays. Between all the running around shopping, cooking, decorating, these moments are what make the holidays all worthwhile. Taking a moment to sit and enjoy your Christmas tree, or pausing in the middle of present-madness to appreciate being with those you love. These moments may be brief, and they may be few and far between, but they're what remind us that all the other craziness is worth it for these moments.

Which is, essentially, what happens to Kevin. Kind of. Maybe I'm stretching. But after everything he goes through in the movie, he comes to the realization that despite how crazy, sometimes mean, and often annoying his family is, he loves them and wants them with him for Christmas. He also makes friends with a semi-homeless woman who is only friends with pigeons, and gives her one of his treasured turtle dove ornaments. You know, instead of money or food or something. She can’t even feed her flock of pigeons with that thing. I know, I know, the spirit of Christmas and all, but I mean, he couldn’t have given her a little cash too?





And, as is with every Christmas movie, if you learn a lesson, you usually get what you wish for. Kevin is no exception. Just in time for Christmas, he saves the toy store and the children’s hospital, gets the bad guys caught, and gets his family back. To top it all off, his rich, privileged family gets an assload of toys from Mr. Duncan. A thank you that Kevin really should have kept to himself, because let’s be honest, his family kind of sucks.