The Family Stone Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)December 14th, 2005
THE FAMILY STONE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
As overstuffed as a Christmas turkey, THE FAMILY STONE isn't a movie that you can fault for not trying hard enough. The problem, in this sporadically funny tale, is that it tries too hard and is too contrived. Writer and director Thomas Bezucha (BIG EDEN), in his first major film, tries to cram in every idea he can think of and attempts to make the family in the film be too much of a melting pot, having all manners of types, races, sexual preferences and occupations. He even throws in the cliché of the dying mother to make sure that he has all his bases covered in his screwball comedy and tear-jerker.
Although the movie's charms may be resistible, Diane Keaton, as the witty and sassy Sybil Stone, the mother of the Stone family, is absolutely irresistible. She is in equal measures both lovable and hilarious. Craig T. Nelson does a nice turn as Kelly, Sybil's husband.
The setup has eldest son Everett (Dermot Mulroney) bringing home for Christmas the story's central character, an uptight woman named Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker). He plans on asking his mother for her mother's wedding ring, which he intends to offer to Meredith when he proposes to her.
Meredith wears her hair pulled back so tight that she appears in constant danger of having a self-induced brain aneurism. Her austere wardrobe makes her look like someone interviewing for a position as a funeral director. But, in a switch of character so fast that it will have your brain spinning, she switches from being taciturn to loquacious. Throughout her rapid transformation, all members of the Stone family, including the other adult children, Ben (Luke Wilson), Thad (Tyrone Giordano), Amy (Rachel McAdams) and Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), think that she is not someone whom Everett should marry.
The madcap plot features a potential sister swap, when Julie (Claire Danes), Meredith's gorgeous sister, comes to her rescue. Ben starts eyeing Meredith, as Everett finds himself increasingly attracted to Julie. The few "twists" in the movie are quite predictable, including its four-hankie ending.
To make sure he includes a complete kitchen sink of characters, the writer has one of the characters be a gay, hearing-impaired man with a black partner with whom he is in the process of adopting a son. In a scene guaranteed to reduce the noise level in the theater to be so quite that you can hear a popcorn kernel drop, Meredith speaks her mind and thereby commits a terrible faux pas. "I think any parent would want a normal child," she says to Sybil, after Sybil claimed she wished all of her boys would have been gay. Meredith further puts her foot in her mouth by trying to discuss the possibility of homosexuality being genetic. Sybil cries, and Kelly starts pounding on the table. Meredith, figuring that she can never dig her way out of the predicament she has put herself in, runs out of the room as fast as she can.
At times, the film is pure slapstick, with one person after another falling on his face after slipping on a spill in the kitchen. THE FAMILY STONE has got it all, from hammy comedy to sexual banter to heavy schmaltz -- just a little too much of everything for my taste. Still, I laughed some, and it does have its moments. And the snowy scenes of the Christmas season are always a treat.
THE FAMILY STONE runs 1:42. It is rated PG-13 for "some sexual content including dialogue, and drug references" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, December 16, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: [email protected]
***********************************************************************
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email?
Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
