| For anyone who views holiday gatherings with equal parts joy and dread, The Family Stone offers plenty of comedy to identify with. Writer-director Thomas Bezucha's slapstick premise begins when Everett (Dermot Mulroney) brings his fiancé Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home to meet his family for Christmas. It's an instant disaster when parents Sybil (Diane Keaton) and Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) agree with their gay, deaf son Thad (Ty Giordano, who is actually hearing impaired), pot-smoking son Ben (Luke Wilson) and daughters Amy (Rachel McAdams) and Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser) that Meredith is way too uptight to be welcomed into their family. Meredith recruits her sister Julie (Claire Danes) to help her thaw the Stone family cold front, and after building a solid emotional foundation for his holiday comedy, Bezucha starts to stack the deck with plot developments that, while heartwarming, border on the absurd. You either go with the movie's flow or you don't, and with this appealing cast (featuring some really nice work by Keaton, Nelson, Parker and Danes) it's easy to forgive Bezucha's unlikely blend of yuletide cheer, petty animosities, and romantic tables turned in the blink of an eye. Toss in a case of terminal illness and you've got a sad-happy tearjerker that works in spite of itself. If you don't recognize at least part of your own holiday clan in The Family Stone, you probably haven't been paying attention. --Jeff Shannon |
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 Excellent and Real! |
| Review Date: August 29, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Never Lander, |
OK, this film was a bit misleading in its promotion. This film is NOT a comedy. It has comedic elements but the film is a drama. The film is perfect in its execution. It is far from the cheesy Christmas films of old. It harkens back to films like "Home for the Holidays" with Holly Hunter (a classic in its own right for both Hunter and Robert Downey Jr's performances). The familial angst, the liberal meeting the conservative, the desire for love, family protecting family, it's all here. Sarah Jessica Parker shines in a very different role for her. You feel her painful shyness at dinner when she is so misunderstood in her intentions that she ends up in the car crying.
Not all aspects of the film are to be applauded but the underlying story of the "family stone" which could be the ring requested from the matriarch of the family, the last name of the family of course or the matriarch herself are amazing. Very touching moment at the end, if a bit unrealistic, where they all focus on the picture given as a gift of a pregnant Diane Keaton.
Rachel McAdams is also a shining part of this truly ensemble performance. She plays the little sister with tenacity and twisted pleasure but hides a softer side under sarcasm. She is the perfect foil to Sarah Jessica Parker and I love the humor, heart and love shown throughout this wonderful film. |
Not at all what I expected
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| Review Date: January 3, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Brian C, Kansas CIty, MO |
I was not expecting much other than boy friend points when I took my girlfriend to see Family Stone. The previews did not do the movie justice. This was not another piece of light hearted comedic fluff.
Instead the I was treated to a serious story with moments of levity and intensity. All of which could be related to. The characters are not perfect, they all have personality flaws which makes them seem real. The plot does not entirely follow the standard format, throwing several unexpected events at you. And the store line is not taking place in a $500k house that most Americans could not afford. It is a very down to earth relateable story. |
One of the best movies I've seen in a while
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| Review Date: April 8, 2006 |
| Reviewer: LKJones, Texas |
| I was compelled to write a review for this item after reading some of the very misleading reviews below. While this movie might not be everyones cup of tea I think it's perfect for this day and age because it addresses every kind of person you can ever have in your family. They have the gay brother, the mother with cancer, the pot smoking brother, the pregnant sister with a family, the stuffy uptight business man brother, the sarcastic sister looking for love, and of course the father just trying to hold his family together. Some of the issues they address and have in the movie are, I am sure, issues that people have every day - they just put it out there. Plus it makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you feel uncomfortable when they talk about "sensitive issues" - but that's life! I think this movie did an absolutely fabulous job of pulling it all together and whether some people agree or not, the ending does put a smile on your face - at least it did for me. GREAT MOVIE! |
Three cheers for Diane Keaton
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| Review Date: July 1, 2006 |
| Reviewer: , |
Another astonishing performence by Diane Keaton. Even though she is almost 60 she can still give a heck of a performence. It is her best since Something's Gotta Give. She plays Sybil Stone
"The Mother" of 5 loving children. Her favorite son comes home to ask for "The stone" so he can propose to his gilfriend. She wouldn't allow it because no one in the family liked her including herself. Having cancer doesn't make it easy for the family. Slowly the family members start to figure out the moms secret. As the Christmas holidays go by and the moms life fades and fades away. She learns to get along with the bride to be(Sarah Jessica Parker). She finally gives her son the ring because she's dying and she only wants her son to be happy. The son ends making a better choice for everyone. |
Wonderful, quirky, unexpectedly touching film
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| Review Date: May 22, 2007 |
| Reviewer: G. Buckman, Atlanta |
Anybody who has a family that is "different" or has had to go through hard times together will appreciate this movie. All of the reviews that spoke about this movie being "unrealistic" should really get a clue. Realistic is very relative (there are some families where the kids go nuts and murder the parents - would that have been more realistic?). I thought the family dynamics in this film were excellent and well-acted.
It is easy to see why the family Stone doesn't like the eldest son's prospective fiance, Meredith (played by SJP to a "T"), because in the beginning she is so, well, unlikeable! Its easy to believe that the family's opinion of Meredith is so heavily influenced by the youngest daughter Amy (played by my favorite actress Rachel McAdams, and anyone who has said, "who is she" should see the amazing movie "The Notebook"), who met Meredith at a prior time and didn't like her. Why? Because how many times has your sister/brother/daughter gone on about a person that they don't like and has made you dislike them? This is because you tend to side with the person, who, DUH, you've known all your life as opposed to someone you've never even met.
Some of the plot lines may have been a bit far-fetched, i.e. the brother falling for his girlfriend's sister and the girlfriend falling for her boyfriend's brother in the matter of a day. But what this really meant to illustrate, is, that a) you never know when you are going to find true love b) you shouldn't walk away from it just because it may not be the perfect timing c)life is too short to spend it with the wrong person. I thought the scene with Meredith's sister Julie (played by Claire Danes who looked beautiful in this movie) and Everett (the oldest son) where she talks about the man with the "hole in his heart" is really a foreshadowing metaphor for Everett, who is with Meredith but is obviously walking around with a big hole in his heart that needs to be filled.
Addressing the terminal illness part - if you watched the movie you know that the mother is dying of breast cancer (DUH for all the people who asked, "what kind of cancer is she even dying from anyway"). The scene that OBVIOUSLY demonstrates that is when she opens her shirt to reveal her mastectomy scar. While some people were offended by that, the fact that she is not ashamed of this disfigurement and that her husband isn't turned off by it just demonstrates the depth of their love for each other. Other reviews have remarked that well, she looked healthy, which I think is just an absurd remark. The movie didn't show her on a treadmill for God's sakes. It even shows her napping in the middle of the day. People are so over-critical. I'm sure nobody wanted to be beat over the head with overwrought scenes of the mother showing how ill she was. Plus she was trying to keep it a secret from her children.
The last scene that I'm going to get on my soapbox about is the Christmas Eve dinner scene. The one where Meredith makes the well-intentioned but cruel remark about the gay son Thad not being "normal" and being "challenged" because of his sexual orientation. People are outraged because they thought the family's reaction to her statement was too mean. And I challenge everyone who thinks that to put themselves in that family's shoes. I have a deaf mother and I am fiercely overprotective of her, even to a fault. Our culture is not friendly to people who are different - everyone knows that. Is it so hard to believe that a close-knit family like the stones would overreact when an outsider criticizes a family member? Especially one that has probably had to deal with more than his share throughout his life?
Sorry for the novel. I just get so irritated when people criticize things without truly thinking it through. This is an excellent movie and I highly recommend it. |
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