The Family Stone

This 2005 effort from newcomer writer/director Thomas Bezucha had, I think, more potential than ended up on screen: the plot is wellworn but Bezucha brings a few good twists, recognizable/proven talents are in almost all the significant speaking roles and for the most part engaging chemistry. Oldest brother, successful career but disconnected from his true emotional self, brings home his even more successful and even more disconnected girlfriend for a snowy, small town New England Christmas to meet his mellow, wildly different family and then propose to her.

Over the 100 minutes of The Family Stone Dermot Mulroney (the brother) and Sarah Jessica Parker (the girlfriend) reach the lowest of lows and (this being a movie) rebound to true happiness. When Parker hits hers she reaches out to younger sister Clare Danes; somehow, never clear to me, stoner middle brother Luke Wilson is as smitten with Parker as Mulroney is with the nearly-glowing Danes as she steps off the bus.

The problem here for me is that Family is maudlin, nearly melodramatic. I say this because of the illness of mother Diane Keaton, the youngest brother is both gay and deaf, the youngest sister (Rachel McAdams) criticizes Parker for being an uptight phony and turns out to be nearly the same herself. Then there’s the final scene, a year after the main events, which was really unnecessary.

mildly recommended