I'll Be Home For Christmas (1998)

Originally Written
Monday, October 9, 2006

It's officially the Christmas season so what better way to tip off the yuletide but with Jessica Biel, a fast sports car and plenty of Santa Clauses? I'll Be Home For Christmas is a film that has become a Christmas regular for me over the past couple years managing to entertain during every viewing with a dose of good lighthearted comedy, and of course Jessica Biel.

I'll Be Home For Christmas stars VH1 Where Are They Now? candidate, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who attempts to transfer his success from the small screen into stardom on the big screen. Unfortunately, for him, Thomas's movie career didn't last very long, and the ending of Home Improvement ended up being the end of his career. While not an exceptionally great actor this type Disney comedy is definitely taylor made for him and a hard role to screw up. Thomas plays Jake, a college student originally from New York going to school across the country in California. Every Christmas he gets the call from his father to come home for the holidays, but every year he makes up some excuse to blow the trip off. Ever since the death of his mother Jake can't get over the fact that his father remarried only 10 months later, and the thought of returning home doesn't appeal to him.

Once again Jake's father sends him a plane ticket home and Jake thinks of an excuse to not go, meanwhile he cashes in the ticket for two tickets to Cabo, planning to invite his girlfriend Allie (Jessica Biel) to spend Christmas with him. But one thing he doesn't expect is a rather cold response from Allie, who is intent on going back to New York to spend time with her family. Jake's not sure what to do until he receives a call from his father offering him a proposal he can't refuse. If he returns home by 6 o'clock Christmas Eve, he'll give Jake the shiny Porsche they'd spent so many years rebuilding. Unable to turn that down Jake is willing to put aside his misplaced anger towards his father and his new step-mother and exchange the two tickets to Cabo for two tickets to New York. Now he can makeup with Allie and get the Porsche!

Allie is impressed by Jake's change of heart, but unaware of the true reason behind it, and agrees to fly back with him to New York, but Jake is still in for a hard ride. After some business dealings backfire Jake finds himself stranded in the middle of the desert thanks to a few college classmates out to get even with him, now the clock is ticking and Jake's stranded in the middle of nowhere, broke and dressed like Santa Clause with a limited amount of time to get home. Meanwhile Allie can't believe Jake never shows up with the plane tickets and ends up having to hitch a ride to New York with the extremely annoying Eddie, also the one responsible for Jake's recent misfortune. Eddie hopes that with Jake out of the picture he might have a shot with the lovely Allie.

So begins the exciting adventure as Jake tries to make it from California to New York on wit and charm and some unexpected Christmas spirit. And when he finds out Eddie is giving Allie a ride back to New York it only gives him even more ambition to keep on going. Along the way Jake meets quite a few interesting people who help him realize the true spirit of Christmas and cause him to realize how much of his life he's taken for granted.

I'll Be Home For Christmas isn't a great film, but what it does offer is some fun and enjoyable entertainment. The story is fairly simple and at times corny but it's a fun holiday film that certainly helps get you in the Christmas spirit. As I said before this is a great film for Thomas because it fits right into his norm and is quite similar to his Home Improvement character. Jessica Biel isn't in the film a whole lot, but when she is, she offers up a good performance and as always is pleasant on the eyes. But one thing I really liked about this film is the music, as it contains a great selection of some classic Christmas songs that really helps to set the mood.

In the end, I'll Be Home For Christmas is a wonderful little holiday film that's sweet, funny, entertaining, and even a little sentimental, not to mention the film progresses at a relatively brisk pace. It probably won't make the list of most people's all-time favorite holiday classics but for the most part it's a family friendly holiday film that is well worth at least one viewing every holiday season!

7/10