When we think of holiday movies, we often think of Christmas movies – classics like It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street, rom coms like Love Actually or The Holiday, or even action movies like Lethal Weapon or Die Hard. Or, earlier in the fall there are endless Halloween-based scary stories. What ends up getting most neglected here are Thanksgiving movies. It’s true that there aren’t a lot of them (especially strange considering it’s such a big American holiday), but Planes, Trains, & Automobiles is hands down the best Thanksgiving movie I’ve seen and is a stone-cold classic.
The high concept premise is that Nela Page (Steve Martin) is a businessman trying to get home from New York to his family in Chicago in time for Thanksgiving. A huge snowstorm hits Chicago, leading to multiple delays and transportation changes. Along the way, he meets Del Griffith (John Candy) an outgoing and overly-friendly shower curtain ring salesman who is sincere but lacks personal boundaries and quickly gets on Neal’s nerves.
You can argue whether this is a true road trip movie or not, but you can’t deny that this is one of the great buddy movies of all time. Page is the main character and the straight man, and from the opening scene John Hughes establishes that (1) Page really, really wants to get home to his family as soon as he can, and (2) Page is kind of a prick. Griffith, on the other hand, is grating right off the bat, and his behavior leads Page to act in a way that many of us would in his situation. But while Griffith is annoying, he’s also sweet and genuine and loveable, and with the first fight we find ourselves siding with him. John Candy is the real MVP here, the heart and soul of the movie.
There are parts of the film that feel formulaic, predictable and even a little cheesy, but the movie just has so much goddamn heart that it more than makes up for its flaws. There are also a few well written surprises – in the very first act the two have a big bust up in the hotel room, something one would normally expect to be reserved for the third act and big resolution, and so this keeps the audience genuinely guessing. The scene also changes the tone of the film and hints that it is aiming for something more – at that point it was mostly a slapstick physical comedy, but the fight turns emotional and even hurtful for an argument between two strangers. In between the constant jokes, Hughes will continue to remind us of the little bits of hidden sadness and plants the emotional stakes of the film.
The jokes themselves can be a little hit or miss but some of them are absolute classics (“those aren’t pillows!” is still an all-time great line), and even though there’s a lot of low-brow humor, there are also genuine laughs to be found. One of my favorites is the singalong on the bus to the Flintstones song (famously parodied in The Office) that demonstrates the communal bonds of traveling home for the holidays. Of course, the most famous scene is the airport car rental scene, the comedic equivalent of the famous scene from The Wire, though the movie is otherwise pretty family friendly.
Planes, Trains, & Automobiles is not a terribly complicated movie – it’s simple and heartfelt with a big city vs country/midwest theme that’s personified by the two leads. Some of the most important messages are explicitly said by Del, like “like your work, love your wife” and “love is not a big enough word”, but it’s so earnest that it really gets you. The ending is sappy and a little predictable but even that almost seems like it’s in the spirit of a warm holiday movie that reminds us about the important things in life.
