Sonic Cinema

Sounds, Visions and Insights by Brian Skutle

The Family Stone

Grade : A Year : 2005 Director : Thomas Bezucha Running Time : 1hr 43min Genre : , ,
Movie review score
A

Does anyone remember the movie “Home for the Holidays?” It came out in 1995, was directed by Jodie Foster, starred Holly Hunter, and was about a holiday with a dysfunctional family. This is the movie that one wanted to be. It’s also a movie- like the underappreciated “The Weather Man”- that I think will last longer for its’ admirers than its’ meek box-office performance indicates. This film is a triumph for fans of smart, engaging character-driven stories, and an original look at family dynamics from its’ writer-director, Thomas Bezucha, who has given us one of 2005’s best films, and unless a belated holiday miracle occurs, you won’t see this film in any of the Oscar races it deserves to be in. Bezucha hits some familiar notes to be sure, but the feelings ring true, and the laughs stick in the throat as hard as they bust a gut.

The film stars Sarah Jessica Parker as Meredith, the uptight, career-driven city girlfriend of Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney, who makes an engaging male lead in this movie after being the “guy” in many a romantic comedy) who is going with Everett to his family’s house for Christmas. From the get-go, Meredith is the preverbial fish-out-of-water, as her buttoned-down, conservative personality doesn’t gel with the Stone’s laid-back, liberal life style. Mom (Diane Keaton) and dad (Craig T. Nelson, fresh off his triumph in “The Incredibles” with another endearing father figure) are appalled by her; mom in particular can’t bear the thought of Meredith getting her mother’s wedding ring. Sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) thinks she’s a stuck-up, self-centered bitch, while gay and deaf brother Thad (Ty Giordano), who’s also dating a black man and wanting to adopt a child, can’t understand why she’s shouting. Only the slacker brother Ben (Luke Wilson) seems to be on her side, although he brings to light her faults with a blunt honesty that she takes a little too far on a drunken Christmas Eve night. Thankfully for Meredith, her sister Julie (Claire Danes) has agreed to come into town as a supportive ear, though when Everett meets her at the bus stop, the situation grows even more complicated.

To say the sparks fly is to state the obvious. As is the impending announcement of a personal tragedy, and the inevitable “change of heart” as characters end up with people they didn’t start the movie with. That the film makes all of these predictable twists flow naturally from the story is a credit to not just the skill of Bezucha- who had previously only written and directed the indie film “Big Eden,” unseen by me- and sympathy his cast earns for all of its’ characters. Parker is perfection at showing Meredith’s obvious discomfort when surrounded by such cut-loose and free-thinking people, and her nervousness is palpable by all, though most of the Stone’s would rather cut her down than see where she’s coming from- she was wholly worthy of her Golden Globe nomination.
Keaton finds the pain and poignancy in every laugh and line as a mother who only wants her children to be happy even if Meredith can’t see past issues that don’t jibe with her narrow-minded values (a dinner scene where her words come across- not wrongly- as prejudice and painful for a loving mother to hear brings out a side of Keaton we normally don’t see, and she makes it unforgettable). McAdams (“Wedding Crashers,” “Red Eye”) continues her ascent as one of Hollywood’s most engaging actresses as a delightfully sassy and judgemental sister who gets a pleasant and memorable surprise from her target at the end. Wilson gives one of his best performances as the one member of the Stone’s- besides his brother- who openly sympathizes with Meredith, and in the end, gives her permission to cut loose from her passive personality and start to “let her freak flag fly.” That he starts to fall for her is evident from the trailer; that he and Parker make the attraction palpable is a credit to them both. And Danes- fresh off her career best work in “Shopgirl”- is equally luminous as Parker’s less wound-up sister Julie, who is able to express herself more freely than Meredith and strikes an immediate bond with Everett that heads in a direction neither of them suspect. All have moments that place them first among equals in a movie that has few this past year in how it takes formula conventions and turns them on their earns and into something memorable and moving.

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