How many times can a family lose their child before the authorities get involved in a meaningful way is only the kind of question that one would find in a drama, not a comedy. Set against the backdrop of Christmas in New York at a luxury hotel, the shenanigans unfold as one little boy attempts to outwit a pair of thieves trying to make a quick buck.
The Home Alone franchise is synonymous with Christmas, centered on a young boy, Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), being left behind by his family as they go on vacation. At least, that’s the plot of the first two films – as they’re the ones that actually focus on the McCallister Family. While it features a similar plot to the first film, having learned their lessons, the McCallisters ensure that Kevin is with them at the airport. The chaos happens there, this time, when Kevin is separated from his family and unwittingly joins another large group to be waved through the boarding gate. While Peter (John Heard), Kate (Catherine O’Hara), his parents, and his whole family board a plane to Florida, Kevin finds himself en route to New York.
Much like its predecessor, the chain of events that result in Kevin getting his wish (to spend the holidays alone) erupt because of his older bully-brother, Buzz McCallister (Devin Ratray). During a school Christmas pageant, Buzz humiliates Kevin and, after offering an insincere apology that the entire family accepts at face value, he makes it clear to Kevin that he doesn’t mean it. When Kevin lashes out at Buzz for this, the entire family takes Buzz’s side, much as they did in Home Alone. Rather than being grounded and sent to the third floor, Kevin exiles himself there. At this point, he is already upset that they’re spending Christmas in Florida, which he feels lacks the spirit and ethos of Christmas; he once again wishes to be left alone. While Kevin makes it to the airport, he ultimately gets part of that wish.
While the family ends up in Florida, with Kevin hoping their whole trip is wrecked in a tropical climate, he realizes that, while he’s alone in New York, he can have the Christmas that he wants. This is made all the easier by one simple detail: Kevin was holding his father’s bag, which included his wallet and credit card. Kevin picks the Plaza Hotel, where the hotel staff become an ensemble, forced to deal with the whims of a child on his own for the second time in his life, and apparently has money to burn.
Tim Curry plays the concierge/Mr. Hector, who acts as the primary antagonist to Kevin for the first half of the film during his hotel stay. Rightfully suspicious that Kevin is staying at the hotel alone, which violates their policy, never mind certain laws, Mr. Hector is all too happy to cause Kevin grief. Considering the plot, the fact that he is played as an antagonist at all is solely due to Home Alone 2 being a comedy, with Tim Curry, renowned for his villainous roles, such as Pennywise, to fall back on. While he runs Kevin out of the hotel, his comeuppance is served by Kate, who berates and slaps him for daring to send a child he realized was staying alone in his hotel out into New York City.
Hester Stone, the desk clerk (Dana Ivey), Cedric the bellhop (Rob Schneider), and Cliff (Fred Krause), one of the security officers, alongside an unnamed one played by James Cole, act as the primary obstacles and entertainment. For example, when Cedric performs his job for Kevin, he rubes his fingers for a tip, resulting in Kevin giving him a piece of gum. Later, when Kevin realized what he had been angling toward, Cedric refused because he thought it would be another piece of gum, but it was an actual tip he never gets, which is echoed in his final scene in the film. Hester is the one who actually accepts the card Kevin gives her, allowing him to stay in the hotel in the first place. Cliff, sharing a name with a character in a film that Kevin uses to trick them, is played for a gag when they believe they’re about to be shot with a Tommy gun. At the end of the day, they’re a group of sober characters thrown into the hijinks that Kevin tosses in his wake for salvation, but they are not the main antagonists.
The Wet Bandits, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), have escaped from prison and find themselves in New York looking for a score when they find themselves in the vicinity of Kevin, and decide that revenge is a dish best served now. While they’re role is fleeting in the first half, they are the mechanism by which Kevin’s ingenuity and resourcefulness are put on full display in the latter half. With his Uncle’s brownstone as his chosen site, he rigs the play with booby traps and manages to call the police, but a slip and fall results in his capture.
The Pigeon Lady (Brenda Fricker) and Mr. Duncan (Eddie Bracken), the owner of a toy store, are the two figures who act as Kevin’s friends and protectors this time around. The toy store, which raises money for a children’s hospital, has become the target of the Wet Bandits’ crime spree, pitting Kevin against them to protect the funds, the store, and Christmas in general. Meanwhile, the Pigeon Lady is the one who ultimately saves him from his impending death.
Where Kate was the only one to get back from Paris in the first film, this time the entire family makes it to New York at the point at which he is booted from the Plaza. Kate rushes around New York trying to find him, before she realizes precisely where he has to be – at the center of Christmas. With so many McCallisters, few of them get much to do, such as Megan (Hillary Wolf), Kevin’s older sister, who doesn’t even interact with Kevin in this film. Fuller (Kieran Culkin), one of his younger cousins, gets a few more lines in this entry, even if his role is not excessive. Kevin’s other Uncle, Frank (Gerry Bamman), not the one who owns the townhouse, mind you, but the one who makes Buzz look like a love tap at times.
Home Alone 2 is a fun follow-up to a beloved American classic, directed by Christ Columbus, whose career has spanned the gamut. But, from working as a writer on The Goonies or Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland to directing Mrs. Doubtfire, Bicentennial Man, and the first two Harry Potter films, it is clear that in that range his stories are centered on the growth and interiority of young boys and their connection to family – especially in regard to their parents and the world around them.
While this is the last one to focus on Kevin McCallister, as played by Macaulay Culkin, the series continued on with sequels and spinoffs in some fashion. Most people tend to ignore them for one reason or another. For me, the only one I truly enjoy is Home Alone 3, because it didn’t try to be the predecessors in any way beyond its basic formula – a precocious kid at home, a slew of booby traps, and capable adults being played for fools because they underestimated somebody younger than them. Then again, it also includes one of Scarlett Johansson’s earliest on-film performances, and she is amazing in it.
Lloydd Marshall Books 