Home Alone analysis

[jhull]

Yeah, isn’t it:

• I wish you all were dead (gets banished to room)
• local authorities dismiss panic call
• waiting for someone to give up their tickets (no takers)
• polka guy offers a seat in his van
• Kevin decides he wants his family back
• burglars choose Kevin’s house “this is the one”
• everyone decides Kevin is ok
• Kevin decides not to tell anyone what happened

I’m sure I missed one or overinflated a couple but it does feel like a Decision Story with a Willing Be-er in the driver seat.

All the fun Macaulay Culkin stuff is Be-er stuff, the pretending to be a mobster, pretending to be an adult in the checkout line, being or acting like an adult.

Also I think this is a case of a Changed character whose Resolve changes gradually over time, not a Leap of Faith kinda thing. Once he meets drunk Santa he basically has already made up his mind (before the OS is done).

[Hunter]

I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to really participate in the discussion above, as I would have loved to help in an analysis. (I didn’t have time to watch until tonight.) I wanted to add, though, that the quote below is exactly what I was thinking and feeling when I was watching it tonight.

@jhull

Also I think this is a case of a Changed character whose Resolve changes gradually over time, not a Leap of Faith kinda thing.

However, I disagree with when he has completely made up his mind. I felt like he was still wavering, be it ever so slightly, with drunk Santa, and the final part of the change manifested in the church while talking with Marley.

[mlucas]

The only problem is, isn’t the storm and the power going out an important event that turns the plot? Was there any decision shown that would leave them especially open to sleeping in? (I don’t recall one)

Or are we saying author’s intent is that Kevin’s decision to wish everyone away actually did cause (force) that power outage?

[jhay]

That’s definitely cleared things up for me, Jim. I always struggle to envision internal OS domains in movies, so a tangible goal makes it a little clearer for me.

As for the Decision driver, I could go Action OR Decision, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Kevin is 100% willing throughout. So if he’s a Be-er, as Jim has convinced me he is, it has to be Decision.

I watched it again on Christmas Day, but still struggled with seeing it as a Mind OS. However, I may revisit it with the new knowledge of this goal and try to see it from a new perspective.

[Greg]

Finally went back to read what I said in the other thread last year. Seems like I kept trying to talk myself out of arguing for Kevin in Psychology and the OS in Mind.

@Gregolas

Fixed Attitude - The family doesn’t seem to think much of Kevin. “You’re what the French call Les Incompetent” and “Look what you did, you little jerk.” But to be fair, he is a jerk. Kevin’s attitude toward the family causes them problems, their attitude causes him problems. Once the mom decides that Kevin is going to sleep upstairs, she doesn’t back down (as an aside, she is punishing Kevin by making him sleep in the attic with Fuller. But when Kevin complains about Fuller wetting the bed, she says Fuller can sleep elsewhere. If sleeping in the attic is a punishment for Kevin, why was Fuller sleeping in the attic? Because he’d wet the bed? Pretty harsh!). Kevin’s attitude that I think causes the biggest problem for him is that he wishes he’d never see his family again. The mom even has him repeat it as if to make sure he means it and that the audience knows it. The Wet Bandits are set on getting into the McCallister’s because it’s the best house on the block.

@Gregolas

This is where I get hung up too. Kevin wishing that his family would disappear and then wishing he had his family back feels like the heart of the film to me. And the RS is where the heart of the story is always being said to reside. And that attitude of Kevin’s doesn’t seem just to affect him, but his family as well. Particularly his mom. So I don’t want to hang Kevin’s MC throughline on that attitude. Also, I’ve started to wonder if that attitude is less of a throughline problem and more of a personal baggage item that indicates an outcome of Good when it gets resolved.

Should’ve stuck with that! Oh well, guess we’ll have to come back to this one again next year after all.

@mlucas

Or are we saying author’s intent is that Kevin’s decision to wish everyone away actually did cause (force) that power outage

Looking at it as a decision story, I’m thinking the decision to stick Kevin in the attic led to the action of forgetting to take him along rather than causing the storm.

[Prish]

@Gregolas

guess we’ll have to come back to this one again next year after all.

Remind us a few weeks ahead of time, in case we want to rewatch the film. I know I’ll want to.

[jhull]

Never thought I’d see this film up there:

Thanks for the motivation.

Happy New Year!

[mlucas]

Hey @jhull , sorry to resurrect this, but I was just wondering, what were you thinking the First Story Driver of Home Alone is?

It would have to be something that creates the need for the “everyone needs to be more considerate” Goal in order to resolve the story’s problems. I’m not sure Kevin’s wish fits because people being inconsiderate of each other was causing plenty of conflict prior to that.

I wonder if it’s simply “deciding to go to Paris for the holidays”. That decision’s not shown on-screen but it’s referred to plenty, esp. when Kate (Kevin’s mom) tells Harry why they’re going.

[HaroldLloyd]

PS For a fab OS mind & MC psychology, check out Lone Star.

[jhay]

@mlucas

Hey @jhull , sorry to resurrect this, but I was just wondering, what were you thinking the First Story Driver of Home Alone is?

Just rewatched it. Pretty sure the first driver is the decision to banish Kevin up to the attic alone, rather than with Fuller (same scene as he says “I wish you were all dead”). It could be the going to Paris, but the story wouldn’t happen as it does if Fuller were with him (as initially intended), which leads me to think it’s that solitary banishment that kicks everything off.

Here’s where I think the drivers lie:

• Kate banishes Kevin to the attic alone.
• The Bandits select Kevin’s house as ‘the one’.
• Gus Polinski decides to offer Kate a ride.
• The Bandits decide to hit Kevin’s house, regardless.
• Kevin decides not to tell anyone what happened.

[mlucas]

Interesting, Jay. It seems to me that the story’s problems (everyone being inconsiderate and criticising) began before that decision though? But maybe it was a “balanced” inequity that only seems unbalanced, because it’s so clear that everything is about to fall apart (esp. looking at it from Kevin’s perspective).

[jhay]

It’s really hard to locate, honestly. There were three or four candidates for that first driver that happened within ten minutes (the Paris trip/Kevin deciding he wants his family gone/deciding to leave him alone in the attic). It all depends on what you think the core ‘idea’ of the story is because any of them could work.

Everyone is criticising from the get-go, but it’s also pretty clear that this has been going on long before the Paris trip was decided upon (the kids don’t want to share a bed with Fuller/Buzz is criticising and mocking Kevin, etc.), which leads me to believe the actual ‘inequity’ doesn’t begin until Kevin is left alone in the attic (which fits, given the OS is labeled as “An 8 Year Old Alone on Christmas”).

Watching it in the context of a Mind story, it feels really weird, generally. Certain parts of it feel totally right (the ‘you and I’ moment lines up perfectly with IC Understanding – Marley helping Kevin understand who he is, and influencing Kevin to understand what he needs to do – and RS Present – both of them connecting over their current family separation), but others feel really, really off (OS Signpost 4 of Memory is really light because 90% of the act is taken up with the Rube Goldberg house slapstick, except for one, maybe two scenes).

I’m still not 100% onboard with it being in Mind, but I’m remaining open-minded on that until I’m more well-versed in Mind stories.