'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' is the perfect movie for Thanksgiving Day — or any day

I meant to write about Thanksgiving-themed movies more generally. There’s plenty of good ones: “Home for the Holidays” and “Pieces of April” are smart, funny films set at the holiday. “Avalon” and “Addams Family Values” have prominent scenes about Thanksgiving that make them necessary to the conversation.

But John Hughes’ “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” looms so large in my mind that it merits an exclusive dive. It's the story of Neal Page (Steve Martin) and Del Griffith (John Candy) attempting to make it back to Chicago for the holiday — a story where everything that could go wrong does go wrong.

They bounce from New York to Wichita to St. Louis to Chicago with all the blandly neutral locales in between. Yeah, that includes mid-Missouri.

It is one of those rare modern classics people rave about, but is better than anyone remembers. It is funny, perhaps one of the funniest films you will ever see. It is sad in notable moments. But the strength of its character development — surprising, at times — makes the film truly special. A look at two very different men and how the world treats them. Men trying to escape their fate, only to be undone by forces they cannot foresee or control.

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I won’t recount the jokes. You’ve seen them and know I will do them no justice. The story is formulaic: the pairing of Martin and Candy and their Mismatched Personalities. Cinematically, it’s as old as Laurel and Hardy.

What’s daring is casting Martin as the straight man. Often, having two funny actors in this set-up is toxic. There’s no back-and-forth, and it becomes one comedian topping the other. It’s exhausting. Martin knows when to get out of Candy’s way.

It’s the best thing these comedic titans ever did by a long shot. For Hughes, it was personal. Before selling scripts, he was a road-warrior ad exec. One holiday he faced disaster after disaster trying to get back home. The experience caused him to quit his job and try to make a career as a screenwriter. A smart move, as it turns out.

Martin proved his vast talent with this character, playing Neal as an uptight yuppie with a comedic undercurrent that comes out strategically. The car rental scene — perhaps the best deployment of that foul word ever filmed — works because he has thoroughly sold the audience on this character’s repression.

I’d argue Martin’s movie career has endured only because he showed so much range with “Planes ...” when, up to this point, he was better known as a stand-up with an uneven film output. Sorry. ”The Jerk” isn’t as funny as you remember.

With the Mismatched Personality formula, it historically falls to the heavy-set actor to play for laughs. But we never laugh at Del. Even in physical moments like his life-and-death struggle with the driver’s seat, we’re laughing because we’ve dealt with that same experience before.

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Candy is funny, but often better than the films he starred in. If he never found projects that rose to his level of talent like “Planes ...” does, it’s because no one trusted him with multifaceted material. With which, we learn from this film, he excels. It's hard to think of the film without thinking of the “I like me” speech, where the pain and anguish of Del’s life comes pouring out.

Now would be a good time for you to find Roger Ebert’s article on the film, where he recounts seeing Candy alone at a hotel bar to understand how this pain manifests from reality. It’ll break your heart. The “sad clown” bit also isn’t unique, but there’s a tangible resonance here. If we hadn't lost him too soon at the age of 43, there’s no telling how Candy might have surprised us.

Even these effective emotional moments don’t explain why “Planes ...” is great. Rather, it’s what the sadness reveals. Del is a man who has seen life put him through the ringer. His happy attitude and quips are but a defense mechanism. He willingly pairs himself with Neal, a high-strung embodiment of everyone and everything that has tried to break his spirit.

While we know Neal will transform into a more caring and understanding person, the real trick is watching Del realize having a real human relationship — rather than the imagined one he continues with his deceased wife — is the only way he is going to survive.

Think about the implications of the film’s climax. Del has engaged in a deception about the loss of a loved one for so long it becomes natural to him. Simply admitting the truth to someone who was a mere stranger days before seems like a monumental undertaking.

Del’s is the more profound transformation of the film, where he must overcome the paralysis of grief. This is the under-appreciated aspect of the film. Del isn't merely the catalyst to help Neal understand the truer meaning of his life. He must emerge and confront harsher realities as well.

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Both characters must carry this dramatic weight. Both characters have their literal and metaphorical journeys. Each return home as different men. That element is what makes the film great cinema.

“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” works as a comedy and does a nice job on your heartstrings. But it is the existential transformation of the characters that I think has an impact on the audience — and it's what makes the laughs and the tears come with resonance. It is truly a film that works on every level. And the level of developing both characters is what makes the holiday classic stand the test of time.

Forget about watching the film for Thanksgiving. Watch it ever year in hopes it helps make you a better person.

In real life, James Owen is a lawyer and executive director of energy policy group Renew Missouri. He created/wrote for Filmsnobs.com from 2001-2007 before an extended stint as an on-air film critic for KY3, the NBC affiliate in Springfield. He was named a Top 20 Artist under the Age of 30 by The Kansas City Star when he was much younger than he is now.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' is perfect Thanksgiving Day movie