CNS Movie Review: The Family Stone

The Family Stone

By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The credits suggest an up-to-date riff on the picture-postcard opening of "Meet Me in St. Louis," and the initial shot of the family's New England house has something of the old-fashioned solidity of the Smith homestead in the MGM musical.

But even though the earlier film -- and Judy Garland's rendering of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" -- provide a poignant counterpoint here, "The Family Stone" (20th Century Fox) is dealing with more complex issues than the family Smith's upheaval from Missouri to New York.

This bittersweet Christmas comedy-drama concerns New York businessman Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney), who brings his professionally assured but socially awkward fiancee, Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker), home to New England to meet the folks. They include mother Sybil (Diane Keaton) and father Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), sisters Amy (Rachel McAdams) and Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), brothers Ben (played by a warmly sympathetic Luke Wilson) and Thad (Ty Giordano), who -- in one of several contrivances -- just happens to be deaf. And gay. And living with an African-American partner (Brian White). (In fairness, the very likable Giordano is a deaf actor.)

Sensing (not without cause) that everyone -- especially Amy -- dislikes her, Meredith invites her sister, Julie (Claire Danes), to join her for moral support, leading to romantic complications. There's an immediate and genuine chemistry between Julie and Everett that is missing from the latter's spiky relationship with the controlling yet insecure Meredith.

Ben, for his part, takes an immediate shine to Meredith, and sees in her something endearing beyond the foot-in-mouth persona. Along the way, we learn that Sybil has had a bout with some illness, presumably cancer, and that it's come back again, though the family doesn't know. Angry Amy will soften when the boyfriend (Paul Schneider) with whom she was once involved comes back into her life, and Meredith will come to terms with her own anxieties, and win acceptance by the family. Though most of what happens is predictable, the payoff is satisfying.

Writer-director Thomas Bezucha's low-keyed film takes its sweet time getting started, and the easy pace doesn't at first yield much in the way of dramatic dividends, but about midway through the story grabs you, and tugs at the heart, building to a moving life- and family-affirming fade-out.

The performances are all excellent. Parker is a high-powered Manhattan career gal, but a far cry from the self-assured Carrie Bradshaw on "Sex and the City." Keaton radiates genuine maternal qualities and, given Sybil's underlying condition, a resigned sadness.

Flaws and all, this is a worthy and ultimately touching addition to that ever-popular genre, the Christmas movie.

This film contains some profanity and crude language, light sexual banter, partial nudity, a same-sex couple and their adopting a child, premarital situations, and drug references. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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