Next morning I get up obscenely early for remake/reboot/reimagining/rebootquel(?) Home Sweet Home Alone, streaming on Disney Plus. I have mixed feelings about this one, as it seems sacreligious to even consider a remake of Home Alone, though as the film progresses it becomes clear that this is set in the same world as Kevin McCallister’s zany antics, so it’s really more of a sequel, I guess?
Credit to the filmmakers for trying to shake up the small boy versus house invaders formula here and the movie does feature a superb cast. Trouble is, this one takes the problematic direction of making the burglars the actual good guys of the story. As such, this takes a lot of the barmy, cartoon violence enjoyment out of the film because, as fun as it was to watch the despicable Wet Bandits get maimed, burned and feathered, it’s nowhere near as enjoyable when the people getting skelped with pool balls in the face are characters you care about and actually want to see succeed.
Macaulay Culkin, as bratty as he was, earned our sympathies because he was pushed around and neglected by his extended family at the time of year when family should matter most. This time around, young protagonist Max (Archie Yates) is more of an obnoxious, spoiled know-it-all. It’s hard to warm to him in the same way and you know something is up when, as the kid is embroiled in a witty back-and-forth with his nemesis, Rob Delaney’s weary family man Jeff, you find yourself rooting for Jeff to put this smarmy smart aleck in his place. Yates is a good actor but his character is barely fleshed out and seems like much more of a wee prick than Kevin ever did.
John Hughes’ smart script for Home Alone put a crazy amount of effort into showing how the McCallisters could possibly forget their own child when they go on holiday - power cuts, hide-a-beds, frantic dashes to the airport, too many god damn kids. This one can’t be bothered and practically skips the whole clever set-up part. Here, Max climbs into mum (Aisling Bea)’s car to escape his family and watch cartoons on his iPad, falls asleep, then his family leaves for Japan and everyone assumes he must just be in the other taxi. I don’t believe any of it - this kid is irritating enough that you’d definitely notice if you hadn’t seen him for a while. It’s like the film is saying ‘You know what’s coming, can we just skip this bit?’
It feels rushed and unconvincing, as do early scenes showing Max having the house to himself - junk food, making a mess, doing dangerous things with toys, all uninspired callbacks to the original film.
The most original part here is also the most questionable element - here, the ‘burglars’ crashing the kid’s party are the really rather likeable Delaney and Ellie Kemper as Jeff and Pam McKenzie who are hard-up and facing a Christmas where they might have to sell their ‘home sweet home’ just to get by. When Jeff discovers an antique doll is worth a small fortune, he flies into a blind panic when it goes missing. Believing snarky little Max to be the culprit and realising the boy’s family have left for Christmas, he and his wife plot to bust in, grab the doll and Save Christmas. So it’s easy to get behind these guys, as they seem really nice, making it problematic when the movie expects us to delight in their succession of painful injuries as a result of Max’s devious set of booby traps.
The Rube Goldstein-style traps are pretty elaborate with some humorous call-backs to the original and the film takes its time to show us how a 10 year-old could pull off a scheme like this. They make a point of demonstrating that Max gets a lot of help from an Alexa-style online assistant, albeit one with the child safety lock left on. There’s a good gag about “booby traps” that makes me titter.
As fun as it is to see Delaney, dressed in Santa suit, dealing with the excruciating effects of a hot-sauce infused cookie and milk combo, or Kemper slipping and busting her ass on an icy driveway, chortling at their misfortune feels very sadistic. They’re poor and they’re getting their asses kicked -haha? Counterintuitively, the film doesn’t invest the same amount of energy into making us empathise with bratty Max, even if it’s clear this is all a misunderstanding and he’s just a good kid at heart. The one big stupid thing that I don’t get is this – why the hell don’t Jeff and Pam just knock on the door and ask for their doll back? It’s bananas.
There is a mildly amusing cameo from a grown-up McCallister child – though most likely not the one you were expecting, which makes you wonder why they bothered. That’s kind of what this film feels like – a noble effort, but not what anybody would really want. However, it still has some charm, a few belly laughs, a winning moral about the importance of family and truly great turns from Kemper and Delaney, who deserved better than this. It’s still miles better than Home Alone 4, though.
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