What’s Cooking?

In this Rainbow Coalition version of Home for the Holidays, director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha introduces us to four extended Los Angeles families (African-American, Vietnamese, Jewish, Latino) as they meet for Thanksgiving. This volatile melting pot of vividly portrayed characters threatens to boil over as traditions are both embraced and compromised, tolerance is tested by same-sex and multiracial couplings, truths are bared, generation gaps widen and shrink and two bloodlines cope with the fallout of adultery. Familiar faces include Dennis Haysbert, Alfre Woodard, Joan Chen, Mercedes Ruehl, Lainie Kazan, Maury Chaykin, Kyra Sedgwick and Julianna Margolies.