Macaulay Culkin's movie career

Macaulay Culkin’s movie career

With one new Macaulay Culkin movie (the part-live-action, part-animated Pagemaster) now in theaters and another (Richie Rich) on its way, Hollywood seems determined to convince us all that Mac is back. But there’s a line forming on the right, babe, and it isn’t made up of ticket buyers. They’re critics and other entertainment pooh-bahs eagerly waiting to stamp RIP on Culkin’s career. And why? Well, much of the showbiz schadenfreude brewing in anticipation of Culkin’s fall may really be directed at his manager/father, Kit; it seems that everyone who lives or works west of Nevada has a horror story regarding the Culkin weight and how it’s thrown around. Combine this with the fact that, for a lot of parents, Macaulay Culkin’s near-ubiquitous movie presence has made him something of a real-life Barney. Nevertheless, a sober look at his screen achievements reveals other, more critically valid reasons why his stardom may not endure.

While Culkin had worked steadily in various towheaded moppet roles for such films as Rocket Gibraltar and See You in the Morning, the first turn that suggested he had something like star power was in writer-director John Hughes’ Uncle Buck, in which he plays an ally of a well-meaning slob (John Candy) recruited to babysit a privileged but troubled suburban brood. Culkin’s wide-eyed takes at Candy’s misbegotten attempts at, say, cooking are almost as funny as Candy’s delicious slow burns.

It was Buck that set him up for the movie that made him instantly huge, Home Alone. Though the movie’s central conceit- — how a clever kid could fend for himself when accidentally left behind by his family — wouldn’t make for many laughs in real life, Home Alone is essentially a live-action cartoon (Tex Avery’s animated short One Ham’s Family, where an obnoxious young porker makes life miserable for a wolf in Santa’s clothing while his parents sleep, is its direct antecedent). And Culkin’s mugging, best exemplified by that hands-slapping-the-cheeks-in-pain-and/or-surprise gesture, is in keeping with the movie’s overall tone.

Here, the signs of Culkin’s limitations begin to emerge. While he seamlessly goes through the same motions in the inevitable Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and he’s cute and sympathetic as the first male friend of the preteen heroine of My Girl, his attempt to broaden his range with the not-for-kids thriller The Good Son — in a part that calls for complex emotions rather than amusing reactions-comes up way short. Moreover, Son pairs Culkin with Elijah Wood, whose moving performance as the evil Culkin’s opposite number pretty much steals the movie. Following that letdown is the much ballyhooed film of The Nutcracker, more notable for the widely reported behind-the-scenes machinations of the senior Culkin than for anything that ended up on screen: The movie is a handsome version of the ballet — nothing more, nothing less.

Finally, the new-to-video Getting Even With Dad plays with the Home Alone formula of the wily kid getting the better of menacing adults. But with Culkin now in his teens, it goes for a slightly more ”realistic” approach that’s likely to make viewers more queasy than the earlier movies did. There’s a scene at the beginning where Timmy (Culkin) shows up at the home of his ex-con dad (Ted Danson) while Dad’s in the middle of planning a robbery with partners (Saul Rubinek and Gailard Sartain). Needless to say, no one’s too thrilled to see the 11-year-old, and a frenzied conference ensues. Eventually Timmy (who initially has to resort to blackmail to get Dad to spend time with him) charms his hardened but really good-hearted father, persuades him to take the straight and narrow path, and even plants seeds for a potential romance that may eventually put a new mom in the picture (the old one died). In the movie’s last half, after Timmy sends Dad’s partners on a wild-goose chase for some stolen coins, Culkin and Danson develop some comic chemistry that’s disarming only if you haven’t tired of both actors’ patented shticks by now. As for Culkin’s career prognosis? Well, I doubt we’ll see him robbing convenience stores any time soon, but on the other hand, his chances of achieving Jodie Foster’s current status are pretty dim as well. Let’s hope Pop’s invested his son’s money wisely. Uncle Buck: B- Home Alone: B+ Home Alone 2: Lost in New York: C- My Girl B The Good Son: C+ The Nutcracker: B Getting Even With Dad: C-