Not only is this one of the top comedies of the 80’s with some classic comedic lines (Neal – “Where’s you’re other hand?” Dell – “Between two pillows.” Neal – “Those aren’t pillows!”), but it also tells a compelling story, has great storytelling components, likable characters, and strong thematic elements.

This is one of those films that’s a good one to study if you’re writing a comedy with a heart.

One of the things that I like about this film is that it jumps right in to the main character’s problem. Within the first minute of the film we see that he’s in a hurry and that he needs to catch a plane so that he can get home and be with his family for Thanksgiving. Then from there, it’s one disaster after another for him. This is a John Hughes film and he also wrote the screenplay, and one of the brilliant things he did in this script was he gave Neal a series of plausible obstacles early in the film that constantly prevented him from achieving his goal. Then by the time we’re in the third act and the obstacles become less plausible due to the fact that Hughes had to keep raising the stakes, we’re completely on board and the quality of the comedy is first rate.

But the other thing that this film has that takes it beyond the comedy genre is a heart. The ending is heartwarming and touching. John Hughes made a lot of films where families reuniting was the main thematic element. He also was a master at using all of the tools in the toolbox of the story teller, and was not afraid to introduce dramatic elements to a comedy. And make no mistake that this is a comedy. Steve Martin and John Candy had terrific comedic chemistry going in this film with Steve Martin as the straight man and John Candy as the bumbling foil. Neither of them would ever be confused for great actors, but their comedic timing and their histrionics and pantomime make for great comedy, along with the storytelling and character development of Hughes make these characters likable and empathetic.

But going back to the tools of the screenwriter that Hughes took advantage of and make this such a good film is what I want to focus on for a moment. In his Beyond Structure workshop, David Friedman talks about the “slam”. It’s a moment where you expose a character’s flaw, limitation, block, or wound, and this film has a lot of them. We find out at the end of the film that Dell’s wife is dead, but over the course of the film Neal unwittingly slams this fact by bringing her up. The funny thing is that so does Dell. Every time she’s mentioned, Dell has an uncomfortable reaction that the audience picks up on, but doesn’t know why. This creates drama in the story that makes the audience care more about the characters than if this were just a slapstick comedy like Dumb & Dumber.

Also, as mentioned before, the little obstacles that Neal has to deal with grow as the film progresses to the point where they start to become insurmountable and you figure that there’s no way that he’s going to get home in time for Thanksgiving. As mentioned before, they start out small and plausible, like not being able to book a flight or a hotel when he’s stranded. Then they grow into the nearly impossible, like going the wrong way on a freeway and slicing between two big rigs. That is actually one of the funniest bits in the movie where Neal and Dell are both screaming as the sparks fly, and Neal looks over to Dell who turns into a laughing devil. Then, the implausible happens when the lit cigarette causes the car to become engulfed in flames, but they’re still somehow able to drive it when the fire goes out. But again, Hughes does such a great job of building to that point, it’s completely acceptable within the framework of the story.

If you haven’t seen this film before, or if it’s been a while since you’ve watched it, take a couple hours over the holiday weekend and reintroduce yourself to it. Your own crazy Thanksgiving won’t seem so crazy afterwards.