I have yet to meet someone who hasn’t seen Home Alone. That is no slight exaggeration. In its short twenty-four year history, the film has gone on to become a holiday favorite for many families, including ours. Once a year, we dim the lights, set the fire and curl up to the sights and sounds of “Kevin!”
Today’s Women Who Wow Wednesday is all about wide-eyed Kevin’s mom Kate McCallister—the parent who left her son home alone for the holidays.
It’s Christmas and the McCallister family has plans to vacation in France. The night before their trip, amid the chaos of the kids fighting, the ruined pizza and everyone ganging up on Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) for being a nuisance—read: kid with high IQ who no one appreciates—a wish passes through the nuisance’s lips and suddenly the next day the family disappears.
Among the family members who go missing is Kevin’s mom Kate McCallister (Catherine O’Hara) who finds herself on a plane with her husband and family heading to France. Nothing wrong with that, it was the plan after all, until she realizes she’s forgotten her eight-year-old son home alone.
The guilt tears her up so much that she wonders what kind of mother she is for having forgotten her son during a family trip. And like any good mother, when the family arrives in France, the first thing on her agenda is fulfilling her desire to get home to see her boy.
It sounds like an easy task, hop on a plane and she’s good to go. But it’s Christmas time and all the flights are bustling with folks with the same idea—get home for the Holidays. Determined to get back to her son, Kate presses for an early flight that would get her close to home, but not close enough.
When Kate arrives on U.S. soil, she hits another obstacle. She can’t get transportation anywhere. Rentals and flights are gone and her only hope is that someone would be gracious enough to help her get home to see her son. But not before she let’s go on one of the airport attendants venting her plight, reminding them of the common decency of the season. To no avail she gets nowhere.
It isn’t until a bandleader (John Candy) and his buddies offer Kate a ride that things start to make sense again for the exhausted mom. In the back of an old dingy van, she and a gang of old-time polka musicians jet cross-country through the winter Illinois landscape.
Once she arrives home and sees Kevin for the first time since abandoning him, she doesn’t know what to day. Well, actually, she does know what to say, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. You can watch it on your own and relive the excitement of Home Alone.
A mother’s love for a child is a wonderful thing, and Kate shows us what that love is all about.
[Stay tuned next week when the new feature Wednesday Warriors debuts here on JackFlacco.com.]
What do you like about Kate McCallister? What makes Home Alone so gratifying to watch year after year?
Looking to God 
I have never seen any of the Home Alone series, but then the good Hubster accuses me of not watching anything either good or popular. I like Mac Culkin in Saved!, which is quite funny and also stars the lovely Jenna Malone and Mandy Moore. I agree with the above commented that Culkin does seem ageless. He is in fact 34.
If you meet someone online does that count because I’ve never seen Home Alone. And for the record I’ve only seen one of the Star Wars films too!
Chris
I have yet to meet anyone online, but I’m sure the future holds many surprises.
Catherine O’Hara is such a fabulous actor, love her in Christopher Guests movies (particularly Best in Show!)
I loved this movie when I was a kid, I still do. Catherine O’Hara has incredible comic timing and does a bang up job playing a very harried and stressed parent.
Love this movie, and I think my sons are at the exact right age to watch this. They are going to crack up. Catherine O’Hara is a comedic genius, and she plays this role perfectly, in my humble opinion. Great post, perfectly timed!
I think I remember not liking his mom, but I was a kid at the time. So there was that whole ‘stop bugging me, mom’ mentality. Love the actress though.
Hello, pleased to meet you. I have never seen ‘Home Alone 1 or 2″ Yes I occasionally do live under a rock.
The pleasure’s all mine. Allow me to introduce you to my foot, which is firmly planted in my mouth.
hahah Join the club! I thought footwear was a food group. I must also confess to never seeing ‘Gone With The Wind’ and ‘ET’. My bad!
How many times did they forget Kevin ? Twice ? That family had serious issues, & they should’ve gotten counseling or CAFS in the U.S. should’ve found him a nice foster home.
Yeah, after the second time it began getting ridiculous.
How old is Mcauley Calkin anyway ? They had him as a ” call – in ” guest on Frasier years ago, & he still sounded pre – pubescent. Strange.