30 Years Ago Today, Robert Downey Jr. Gave His Best Performance in a Forgotten Holiday Film

Just about everything that Robert Downey Jr. touches turns to gold. Oppenheimer, an Oscar-winning film that houses plenty of outstanding performances, doesn’t work without him, as he portrays the real antagonist of the story, Lewis Strauss. Marvel Studios isn’t going to let Christopher Nolan be the only one to benefit from Downey Jr.’s dark side, though, as it’s bringing him back into the fold as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars. But no matter how menacing Doom is as he goes up against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, it’s not going to change the fact that Downey Jr. is at his best when he’s playing one of the good guys.

Iron Man, of course, is always going to be the role the actor is most synonymous with. However, his resume includes so many other great characters, such as Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chaplin, and Kirk Lazarus from Tropic Thunder. As blasphemous as it may sound, none of them can hold a candle to his character from a 1995 holiday movie that doesn’t get nearly as much credit as it deserves.

Robert Downey Jr. Plays the Black Sheep of the Family in Home for the Holidays

Getting the family together for the holidays can be work than it’s worth. In Home for the Holidays, Holly Hunter’s Claudia Larson is less than thrilled about leaving her home in Chicago to visit her family for Thanksgiving. She doesn’t get along with her parents or sister, and her brother Tommy, played by Downey Jr., whom she relates to the most, isn’t going to attend the festivities. But Claudia receives a Thanksgiving miracle in the middle of the night when Tommy and his friend, Leo Fish, drop by unannounced. It becomes clear pretty quickly that Tommy is hiding something, but Claudia can’t bring herself to care because she doesn’t have to go up against her parents alone.

Tommy starts making trouble as soon as everyone wakes up on Thanksgiving day, and really gives it to his sister, Joanne, good. That comes back to bite him during dinner when Joanne lets it slip that Tommy married his boyfriend, Jack, in Boston. Joanne’s reaction to the news, calling Tommy out for being a “freak,” makes it obvious why the youngest sibling doesn’t come around often. However, letting the cat out of the bag is great for Downey Jr.’s performance, as it allows him to fully embrace his character’s fun side, opening the door for the movie’s heart to start growing.

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Come for Robert Downey Jr., Stay for the Romance

While Tommy genuinely wants to visit his sister, he has an ulterior motive. Back in Boston, he showed Leo a photo of his sister, and the young bachelor fell head over heels in love with her. Once Claudia realizes that Leo isn’t her brother’s new partner, she begins to consider being with him. He has a great head on his shoulders and isn’t anything like her ex-husband. Unfortunately, Claudia nearly ruins everything because she is afraid of opening up and rejects Leo’s advances the night before he’s meant to head home.

Like so many other romantic movies, Home for the Holidays refuses to throw in the towel when the goings get tough. Leo follows Claudia to the airport and buys a ticket on her flight, revealing that he’s had a fantasy of sitting with her for two hours to see if they’re compatible. That idea speaks to Claudia, but the movie ends there, leaving their romantic fates up in the air. It might seem like an unsatisfying conclusion, since there isn’t a wedding or a big embrace. That’s what makes Home for the Holidays so great, though, because imperfections can be just as important as anything else.

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