Unaccompanied Minors Review
by Tim Voon (winklebeck AT hotmail DOT com)November 30th, 2006
Unaccompanied Minors (2006)
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 2006 Timothy Voon
2.5 out of 5 stars
Director: Paul Feig
One could describe 'Unaccompanied Minors' as 'Home Alone at the Airport'. As a child traveling solo points out, 'the majority of kids who travel alone on the holidays usually come from broken families.'
To begin this Christmas story, we have a blizzard closing down Hoover International airport in Chicago on New Years Eve. You can imagine the pandemonium as everyone is trying to get home in time for Christmas. The Airport staff is responsible for the unaccompanied minors, but their incompetence lends a hand to these children being kept in a room, running amuck and destroying everything in sight. 5 of these children escape into the main airport, where they get into trouble hanging out in exclusive lounges, ordering food that they can't pay for, breaking into hangers and playing with the emergency equipment. At this point of the movie, I was getting a sinking feeling that this was going to be a real stinker of a Christmas story.
The children can be described as,
fat-lonely-boy-who-plays-with-Aquaman,
rich-lonely-girl-home-alone-for-Christmas,
angry-lonely-girl-who-is-mad-with-the-world, African-Jewish-boy-says-it-all, and disillusioned-lonely-boy-who-has-low-opinion-of-his-dad. The one thing tying these children together is the fact that they all feel unwanted by their families.
The airport security guards are made out to be overweight, idiotic buffoons and their boss a real scrooge. They chase the children around the airport like guerillas and are made to look pretty stupid. During this night on Christmas Eve, 5 children rain terror on the security guards, whilst everybody else is blissfully asleep in their seats unaware of the commotion these children are causing. One notable, entertaining scene is of the kids escaping in a canoe, snowboarding down a hill, with security guards in hot pursuit riding tires and other flotsam.
It is the ending that really saves this movie from becoming yet another 'Home Alone' wannabe remake. I wasn't expecting it, but in the last 20 minutes the story takes an unexpected dramatic turn in line with the Christmas Spirit. Friendships form, families reunited and inner healing takes place. The bitter lost souls who hate this happy time of the year are redeemed and everyone gets a present from Santa Clause.
Timothy Voon
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