Rewatched Stepmom the other night on Netflix, and it is an incredibly beautiful film. But watching it, and thinking of the house in Home Alone made me wonder: did any US 90s family films portray families living at the median income level without ‘not being rich’ being the plot?

It’s just so bizarre that what is a both rare and extraordinary amount of wealth was portrayed to us as the ‘neutral backdrop’ against which stories could be portrayed.

It makes me realise how comparatively progressive Irish film of the time was. Like you could never have set ‘The Snapper’ in a detached mansion in Dalkey and expect nobody to comment on or notice, that the characters were living in extraordinary levels of wealth and privilege.

Another thing that show cases the wealth- she is a single mother- the family is always wealthy enough to run seamlessly on a single income with the mother staying at home. But in reality, despite no maternity leave, the US has a very high female labour force participation rate.

*unless she is a single mother

And finally- rewatching it made me think. Why are we being told that Julia Roberts walking away from her job is her showing she can stand up for herself; rather than her ringing her fiancé and asking him to pick up his own children from school for once in his life.