Thanksgiving Films About the Journey Home

Steve Martin's desperate journey to Chicago collides with John Candy's relentless friendliness. The missed connections and motel indignities are terrific broad comedy, but Candy gives the homecoming a loneliness that changes the jokes. Choose this first for the fullest mixture of travel chaos and emotional generosity.

Ed O'Neill collects his girlfriend's privileged son from boarding school for Thanksgiving, and neither enjoys the arrangement. Their road trip earns its place through the abrasive class clash and grudging dependence rather than a cosy family mood. A rowdier, rougher companion to Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Jodie Foster directs Holly Hunter as a woman arriving at her parents' house after her own life has come unstuck. The crowded performances catch how quickly adults resume old family roles. Watch for the overlapping affection and irritation rather than a neat lesson about everyone finally getting along.

April invites her estranged family to her New York flat, then discovers that her oven will not work. The film cuts between her improvised preparations and their uneasy drive towards her, making hospitality something people have to work at. Its warmth sits beside a mother's serious illness, rather than pretending the holiday can cancel it.

A son's return to New England after three years puts the family's familiar routines under pressure. Bart Freundlich favours withheld feelings and small provocations over a procession of punchlines. This is the quieter choice for viewers interested in what a homecoming fails to resolve.

An estranged woman arrives at a family Thanksgiving determined to repair old damage. Trey Edward Shults turns the crowded house, intrusive sound and awkward exchanges into a mounting sensory ordeal. It is a fierce account of addiction and fragile reconciliation, so save it for an evening when tension is the attraction.

Three generations gather in a daughter's New York apartment, where odd noises and failing light sharpen financial and family anxieties. Stephen Karam makes arriving together feel very different from feeling secure together. Choose it for intimate ensemble acting and creeping unease, rather than seasonal comfort.