| Thursday 20 December 2001 |
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Cause versus effect
The third annual "A Home for the Holidays" CBS special, like its predecessors, has its heart in the right place. Also like its predecessors, it's an odd and contradictory hybrid: a variety show without much variety, a mini-telethon without any appeals for donations, and an infomercial without any product for sale.
What "A Home for the Holidays With Mariah Carey" (tomorrow night at 8) really is selling is the idea of adoption. It appeals to viewers not to open their wallets, but to consider opening their hearts and homes to children living in foster care.
Mariah Carey entertains for a good cause in "A Home for the Holidays". After so many relief specials pegged directly to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist tragedies, it's almost a novelty to watch a prime-time special trying to aid a different constituency. Purely as a television show, though, this "A Home for the Holidays" has surprisingly few moments of real power.
In the biographical segments, that's not the case. When adopted children tell their stories, or when adults who were adopted as youngsters tell theirs, the program is touching. Yet when the performers take the stage to sing, the emotions seem almost as formal as the clothing.
"We all feel fragile in these uncertain times," Carey says to open the show; the irony, that her own recent fragility has been well publicized, goes unremarked. In a form-fitting red evening gown, she sings "Never Too Far" and "Hero" to start the special, then turns things over to a pro-adoption videotape.
And so it goes, with Destiny's Child singing "Emotions" and, later, a horribly arranged medley of Christmas carols. Enrique Iglesias sings "Hero". Mandy Moore, a brunette now, sings "Cry". Carey returns to perform "Reflections", a song she wrote about a foster child, with plaintive lyrics from the child's point of view.
"Don't you even care the slightest bit for me?" she sings. Well, yes, and for the issue as well, but it's all a little forced in this presentation. Dustin Hoffman, Patricia Heaton and Wendy's founder Dave Thomas (a sponsor as well as someone who was adopted) introduce the filmed stories.
Carey closes the show with "I'll Be There". Like the other numbers, it's chosen for its resonance to the occasion, but not much really resonates. The wonderful exception is "The Prayer", a duet between Charlotte Church and young opera talent Josh Groban, whom David E. Kelley showcased as a baby-faced singing phenomenon this season on "Ally McBeal". His performance, especially, is inspirational. Unfortunately, few of the other singers on "A Home for the Holidays With Mariah Carey" can say the same. (New York Daily News) Many thanks to Mariah's Web.
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