The Family Stone
Fox 2000 Pictures | Release Date: December 16, 2005
5.3
USER SCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 152 Ratings
USER RATING DISTRIBUTION
Positive:
71
Mixed:
24
Negative:
57
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User Reviews

User scoreBy dateMost helpful
4
JeffRJan 6, 2006
Genuinely painful to watch. There are some funny parts, but they're overshadowed by the dozens of cringe-inducing scenes. Also, the ending of the romance side of the movie is just laughably unrealistic - at least the rest of the movie Genuinely painful to watch. There are some funny parts, but they're overshadowed by the dozens of cringe-inducing scenes. Also, the ending of the romance side of the movie is just laughably unrealistic - at least the rest of the movie feels plausible, but the "swap" at the end just made me roll my eyes.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
4
ChadShiiraJan 12, 2006
Sarah Jessica Parker plays frigid so amiably in "The Family Stone", but it seems to be a successful performance in the wrong movie. Her character would be more at home in a black comedy. [***SPOILERS***] It makes no sense to me why the Sarah Jessica Parker plays frigid so amiably in "The Family Stone", but it seems to be a successful performance in the wrong movie. Her character would be more at home in a black comedy. [***SPOILERS***] It makes no sense to me why the father(Craig T. Nelson) apologizes to his son(Dermot Mulroney) for his adamant defense of Thad(Tyrone Giordano) when Meredith offends the gay Stone and the gay Stone's boyfriend at the dinner table. Kelly is just being a good father. Meredith gets drunk and transforms into a nice person with vulnerabilties, even after she sobers up. According to "The Family Stone", slipping on a lot of food is what will break the ice between you and your potential in-laws. Meredith's transformation doesn't feel organic. It's just what the screenplay calls for.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
4
MarkB.Jan 5, 2006
Trite plotting, uneven performances, seriously misplaced editorial sympathies and wildly miscalculated attitudinizing cause writer-director Thomas Bezucha's would-be hilarious and heartwarming holiday-centered comedy-drama to...well, Trite plotting, uneven performances, seriously misplaced editorial sympathies and wildly miscalculated attitudinizing cause writer-director Thomas Bezucha's would-be hilarious and heartwarming holiday-centered comedy-drama to...well, sink like a stone. Hidebound, somewhat uptight corporate supervisor Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker), who's established in the opening scenes as a Scrooge simply for making some tough calls that ANY businessperson would normally have to make during the Christmas season, visits her fiance's 1960s-throwback, let-it-all-hang-out family, and that's what the movie's central problem starts: neither they nor Bezucha even make a pretense at giving her a chance. As played by Parker, Meredith stuck me as a little high-strung, maybe trying a bit too hard, but fundamentally a decent, well-meaning person whose main flaw (besides, in Bezucha's view, letting her subscription to The Politically Correct Newsletter lapse) is that she doesn't seem to find the most socially acceptable phrasings in order to voice opinions that she and many, many Americans have every right to have and express, and yet the Stones treat her as rudely and judgementally as Robert DeNiro did Ben Stiller in the Meet the Parents movies. (At least the makers of THOSE films were clearly sympathetic to Stiller, and at least Blythe Danner was there as a tempering force.) Some posters on this site have commented that this a movie that blue-staters will love and red-staters hate, and that's precisely the problem: look, I'm a moderate Democrat who loves Michael Moore, detests Wal-Mart and mostly agrees with John Murtha's recent Iraq stance, but I also know that just as the current pendulum swing of excessive anti-tobacco laws treating smokers as social pariahs resulted largely from their callous disregard for nonsmokers' rights and comforts, so also the extreme popularity of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Fox News is in large part the result of an often all-too-true perception on the part of good, decent conservatives that liberals patronizingly treat them as social and intellectual Neanderthals. It's interesting and ironic to observe that another current holiday release, the not-as-controversial-as-anyone-predicted Brokeback Mountain, may actually be bringing some members of opposing political and social factions together in honest, courteous discussion and debate because it treats all of its characters fairly (and because many moviegoers, regardless of their viewponts on homosexuality, simply love a good weeper), while this movie, in its insistence that Meredith needs to change her views rather than having the Stones treat her with the respect, dignity and decency that a guest, a future family member and a human being warrants, may be driving people apart. Of course, some of this may be attributed to Parker's deservedly Golden Globe-nominated portrayal; she obviously doesn't see Meredith as a one-dimensional ninny, but imbues her with the same measure of empathy that she regularly brought to her signature character, the much-loved Carrie Bradshaw of TV's Sex and the City. And even though this movie includes one of those tireder-than-tired sequences where a character permanently drops all her inhibitions after being treated to an aquariumful of brew, Parker's Dos Equis-fueled bunny hop to Maxine Nightingale's hit "Right Back Where We Started From" was about the cutest thing I've seen in a non-animated feature film since Jennifer Garner's extended dance number to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" about a year and a half ago. As far as the rest of the cast goes, Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson and Luke Wilson acquit themselves honorably; you can't blame Bezucha for yet another humorless, one-note Dermot Mulroney performance (as Parker's betrothed), but I'll do exactly that for getting a completely colorless one out of Claire Danes (especially after being so luminous in Shopgirl) and the first really bad one ever in the heretofore perfect career of Rachel McAdams (Red Eye, The Notebook) as a snotty younger sister. Oh, yes, let's not forget: The Family Stone throws in that old standby, a fatal disease, in order to give all this some Deeper Meaning. All it ends up doing, besides leading up to the most predictable final shot in years, is prove that while Wilson's character contends that Parker's "needs to fly (her) freak flag", Bezucha obviously kept his originality flag folded up, locked in a drawer, and completely out of view throughout.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
6
FrancinaR.May 3, 2006
A lot of weak moments and too much plot crowding out the characters, yet there are a few incredibly strong moments that make the film worthwhile. The quality of the acting is far superior than the writing/directing.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
6
PanayiotisJan 2, 2007
My new holiday fix. The ensemble cast is great. The script has some trouble balancing between the comedy and the drama, but, in the end, you get to feel good about it.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
5
johnp.Dec 18, 2005
Acting was phenominal but it fell flat when they tried way to hard to make it funny and thoughtful. Although some scenes were very thoughtful like the one under the Chrismas Tree.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
4
EvanC.Dec 26, 2005
A schizonphrenic movie. It couldn't decide whether to be a comedy or a drama.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
4
GregSDec 18, 2005
Why do writers and producers think such mush is entertainment? Boring, silly and sad. This couold have been a great movie, but the overall impact is a movie to forget. Keaton shines, as always.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
4
DukeJonNov 18, 2018
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A movie about a repugnant family who decide to be horrible to someone for no reason at all. A woman who runs off with her sister's fiance when they only met 5 minutes earlier. An older matriarch who decides to spend her last christmas watching her family fighting and doing nothing about it. A deaf, gay, mixed race couple who exist only to tick the required amount of boxes. What a waste of a strong cast, and an awful and nonsensical film. Can I have my time back please?… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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4
papermandaDec 17, 2015
Hard-to-believe relationships, character development, and acting, by otherwise good actors, due to a plot with a contrived and unrealistic denouement.
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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