Unaccompanied Minors

Centred around Christmas, this film comes four months too late. But whether it8217;s a nice change from the relentless sun outside the theatre or the easygoing warmth of the characters on screen, the far-from-original Unaccompanied Minors- a less-riotous Home Alone, with some shades of The Terminal8212;leaves you feeling pleasant.

The four children8212; there is a fifth one, but he really doesn8217;t matter8212; share a nice camaraderie and are naughty without being bratty. They are also all products of estranged marriages, are well-balanced and are not trying to get their parents back together. And despite the fact that a blizzard leaves them stranded at an airport on Christmas eve, without adults they are 8220;unaccompanied minors8221; in airline parlance, hence the title of the film, the mini-crisis doesn8217;t lead to their parents getting back together.

In the children don8217;t seem to even want it particularly. As the unofficial leader of the four children puts it proudly, 8220;We children of divorced parents are more resourceful8221;. So, accompanying their minors to the theatre, parents may strike at least one guilt off their conscience.

The minors themselves are likely to enjoy the kids getting the better of adults, leading them on a night-long chase around Hoover International Airport8212;in unclaimed baggage halls and air-conditioning shafts, up escalators and down chutes, and finally downhill on a boat, paddling in the snow.

The jokes aren8217;t that great but they keep coming. Thankfully, they are not too politically correct a born-again environmentalist is the butt of many of the jokes and they don8217;t involve physical pummelling of anyone.

Except, perhaps, of passenger luggage. See what your precious suitcase goes through once you put it on the conveyor belt and, the next time, you might travel light.