“We only say grace when my grandparents are here.” Mara Wilson confided in Miracle on 34th Street (1994). Thanksgiving is one time when families may get together to discover what each member is thankful for. Inviting movie families onto your TV screen is also a way to recognize the forces of living together and the good and bad sentiments innate to this experience.

Using the tradition of grace as a tool, Peter Hedges’ independent film Pieces of April (2003) centered the story around the the Burns family that did not want to spend Thanksgiving together at their daughter April’s (Katie Holmes) apartment, April still managed to portray some thankfulness: “Once, there was this day... this one day when... everyone realized they needed each other.” The chaos of the rest of the film is offset by this remark, especially in the context of the holiday and the realized importance of family and friends.

Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays (1995) uses family tension to create comedy rather than poignancy and some of the cynical sentiments associated with the holiday: “Well, that was absurd. Let’s eat dead bird.” And, “I’m giving thanks we don’t have to go through this for another year. Except we do, because those bastards went and put Christmas right in the middle, just to punish us.”

Audiences may relate to the stress created by forced togetherness, and, while slightly over-dramatized, Foster’s holiday comedy is almost more relatable than that of Hedges’ drama.

There was a bit of a shocker in the echoing of Johnny Cash’s real-life grace at a meal with U2’s Bono and Adam Clayton. After a beautiful, poetic speech, it ended with, “sure miss the drugs, though,” This scene in James Mangold’s Walk the Line (2005), underscores the theme of family conflict centered on drugs, guilt, and stunted relationships. While almost hyperbolic, it may echo the sorrowful problems, but also the enduring hopefulness in many of today’s modern families.

While some movies focus on the holiday difficulties, there is one that always inspires with its Thanksgiving speeches. The children’s movie: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Some of the children don’t get the point of the holiday, such as Charlie Brown’s sister, who quips, “What have I got to be thankful for? All it does is make more work for us at school,”

But it’s Charlie Brown’s friend Linus who seems to know what to say:

“In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast… Elder…Brewster… said a prayer that went something like this: ‘We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice.’”

By the end of that speech, the children understand the core of the message: “We should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by Thanksgiving.”

If Charlie Brown gets it, there is the blessing of hope for all of us - and our families.