movie reviews the family stone

Romancing the family Stone

Diane Keaton in "The Family Stone."

I was poised to attack “The Family Stone” because its story of a family of misfits is no match for the brilliance of “ Junebug .” I was all worked up to bemoan the way a holiday release with stars like Claire Danes , Diane Keaton , Dermot Mulroney and Luke Wilson gets a big advertising sendoff, while a brilliant film like “Junebug,” ambitious and truthful, is shuffled off into “art film” purgatory. Then sanity returned: “Junebug” intends to be a great film, and is, and “The Family Stone” intends to be a screwball comedy, and is, and all they have in common is an outsider coming into a family circle. To punish “The Family Stone” because of “Junebug” would be like discovering that “The Producers” is not “ The Sweet Smell of Success .”

So let’s see what it is. As the movie opens, the Stones are preparing to celebrate Christmas. The oldest son, Everett (Dermot Mulroney) is bringing home his fiancee Meredith ( Sarah Jessica Parker ) to meet the family. Meredith is not going to be an easy fit. She’s aggressive, uptight, hyper-sensitive and dresses like someone who has never been undressed.

Waiting in the hometown are Everett’s family: His mom Sybil (Diane Keaton), his dad Kelly ( Craig T. Nelson ), his brother Ben (Luke Wilson), his gay and deaf brother Thad (Ty Giordano), and his kid sister Amy ( Rachel McAdams ). We will also meet Thad’s African-American partner, Patrick (Brian White), and their adopted son.

So, OK, if the Stones are OK with Patrick, they’re strong on empathy and acceptance. Therefore, if they don’t like Meredith, it is because she is not to be liked. And that does seem to be the case, because (1) it is instantly obvious to her mother Sybil that this is the wrong woman for her son Everett, and (2) poor Meredith is one of those perfectionists who in their rigid compulsion to do the right thing always succeed in doing the wrong one.

Sir Michael Tippett, who wrote operas, said, “There is only one comic plot: the unexpected hindrances to an eventual marriage.” While this definition does not encompass “A Night at the Opera” or “ Babe: Pig in the City ,” there is much truth in it. In Meredith’s case, she is her own greatest hindrance to marriage, and the more she realizes that, the deeper the hole she digs.

The screenplay by director Thomas Bezucha establishes subplots around this central fact. We learn that Everett is drawn to Meredith partly because he believes that to be successful in business, he should be more like her and less like he really is. We learn that Ben, the Luke Wilson character, thinks of himself as a wild and crazy guy. We meet Meredith’s sister Julie (Claire Danes), who flies in to rescue her sister and turns into a second fly in the same ointment. Julie is as relaxed and natural as Meredith is emotionally constipated.

And then, in ways I will not reveal, it turns out there is another truth Sir Michael might have observed: Opposites attract.

“The Family Stone” is silly at times, leaning toward the screwball tradition of everyone racing around the house at the same time in a panic fueled by serial misunderstandings. There is also a thoughtful side, involving the long and loving marriage of Sybil and Kelly. Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson create touching characters in the middle of comic chaos. They have a scene together as true and intimate in its way as a scene involving a long-married couple can be. It doesn’t involve a lot of dialogue, and doesn’t need to, because it obviously draws on a lot of history.

There is an emerging genre of movies about family reunions at holiday time. It seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that most reunions at Christmas end happily, while most reunions at Thanksgiving end sadly. That’s odd, because the way things shake down in the world of fragmented families, we tend to spend Thanksgiving with those we choose, and Christmas with those we must. If those two lists are identical in your life, your holidays must all be joyous, or all not.

What is always true is that the holiday itself imposes Aristotle’s unities of time and place upon the plot. Most of the action takes place in the house or on the way and from it, and whatever happens will have to happen before everybody heads back to the airport. That creates an artificial deadline that makes everything seem more urgent and requires that the truth be told or love declared right here and now, or not at all.

“The Family Stone” sorts out its characters admirably, depends on typecasting to help establish its characters more quickly, and finds a winding path between happy and sad secrets to that moment when we realize that the Family Stone will always think of this fateful Christmas with a smile, and a tear. What else do you want? If it’s a lot, just rent “Junebug.”

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Luke Wilson as Ben Stone
• Craig T. Nelson as Kelly Stone
• Claire Danes as Julie Morton
• Rachel McAdams as Amy Stone
• Sarah Jessica Parker as Meredith Morton
• Tyrone Giordano as Thad Stone
• Dermot Mulroney as Everett Stone
• Diane Keaton as Sybil Stone

Directed and written by

• Thomas Bezucha

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• The Family Stone

An uptight, liberal businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirite... Read all An uptight, liberal businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life. An uptight, liberal businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life.

• Thomas Bezucha
• Dermot Mulroney
• Sarah Jessica Parker
• Claire Danes
• 597 User reviews
• 143 Critic reviews
• 56 Metascore
• 4 wins & 8 nominations

Top cast 29

• Everett Stone

• Meredith Morton

• Julie Morton

• Sybil Stone

• Kelly Stone

• (as Ty Giordano)

• Patrick Thomas

• Susannah Stone Trousdale

• Brad Stevenson

• Elizabeth Trousdale

• John Trousdale

• David Silver
• Jittery Cashier

• Bus Driver One
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Writer and director Thomas Bezucha put the nine cast members playing the Stones through several weeks of rehearsal so they would bond well enough off-camera to convincingly portray a family. This included a crash course in American Sign Language, as eight of the nine characters would be called upon to utilize American Sign Language in the script to either communicate with or interpret for the character of Thaddeus. While some critics, and the cast members themselves, pointed out that their American Sign Language use was sub-par, it was actually a realistic portrayal of a hearing family's use of the language, which is often perfunctory at best.
• Goofs Over Amy by the window while the family is gawking at Meredith outside when they first arrive.

Sybil Stone : [to Amy, after opening Meredith's Christmas gift, a photo of a very pregnant Sybil] That's me and you, kid.

[Amy looks up, crying and nodding]

Sybil Stone : Me and you.

• Connections Featured in Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Jack Black/Rachel McAdams/Charles Ross (2005)
• Soundtracks Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Written by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn Performed by Dean Martin Courtesy of Capitol Records Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User reviews 597

• Sep 4, 2006
• How long is The Family Stone? Powered by Alexa
• December 16, 2005 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• American Sign Language
• Untitled Thomas Bezucha Project
• Drew University - 36 Madison Avenue, Madison, New Jersey, USA
• Fox 2000 Pictures
• Major Studio Partners
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $18,000,000 (estimated)
• $60,062,868
• $12,521,027
• Dec 18, 2005
• $92,884,429

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 43 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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EW debates 'The Family Stone': The best Christmas movie, or the worst?

The Family Stone is one of those Christmas movies viewers either love or hate, mostly because it's just about impossible to sort of like Diane Keaton or sort of dislike Sarah Jessica Parker. Stone is also known for forcing audiences to confront difficult questions, including "Which Wilson brother do I prefer?" and "How do I feel about Dermot Mulroney's cry face?"

Correspondent Samantha Highfill and senior writer Darren Franich decided to talk out their feelings about the controversial (in our office, anyway) 2005 film. Sam's in the film's pro corner; Darren's bringing all the cons.

Happy holidays!

SAM: Where does one begin when talking about The Family Stone ? Let's start with the fact that it's about a beautifully dysfunctional family led by the brilliant duo of Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson. Has there ever been a better parental pairing in a Christmas movie? No, there has not. Add in Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser, and Tyrone Giordano as their grown children, and I've never wanted to hang out with a family more. Seriously, you saw them play Charades. They're FUN. Plus, they all know sign language—because brother Thad is deaf—which just makes them cooler.

DARREN: On paper, it's the perfect family, and the perfect set-up for a great Christmas movie. Unfortunately, The Family Stone is not a Christmas movie. It's a horror movie in which the perfect family's perfect Christmas gets invaded by Sarah Jessica Parker, portraying the worst character in movie history. SJP plays Meredith Morton, who's nominally some kind of executive from Manhattan. But actually, she's a social terrorist from space who has the emotional intelligence of a five-year-old raised in a bomb shelter. My problems with the movie start with her character: Parker played the definition of a hip New Yorker in Sex and the City , so it's a tonal nightmare to see her playing a big-city executive who appears to have never heard of gay people, or deaf people, or to have learned really any basic level of human interaction.

But more to the point: Can we talk about the fact that this is a movie where Dermot Mulroney takes his girlfriend home for Christmas…and then meets his girlfriend's sister…and then immediately falls in love with the sister…and then asks the sister to try on his grandmother's wedding ring? And it's totally okay, because the girlfriend wants to date Dermot Mulroney's brother? Sam, I ask you: Doesn't The Family Stone only make sense if we pretend everyone onscreen is completely insane?

SAM: You know what is insane, Darren? Love. Love makes us do crazy things, like fall for our terrible girlfriend's sister or our hot boyfriend's brother. But here's the thing: We're overthinking this. The Family Stone isn't Interstellar ; it doesn't need to be analyzed. This is a quirky, incredibly chaotic family that sometimes swaps love interests. So what? It's a Christmas movie. Anything is possible! And I won't complain about it, because Luke Wilson is the one thing that makes Sarah Jessica Parker tolerable.

What I will say about SJP's portrayal is that this film takes the idea that Sarah Jessica Parker is annoying, then plays it up to the umpteenth degree—even making sure her ponytail is so tight that it hurts to look at her. I have to appreciate a film that takes Carrie Bradshaw, distorts her, and doesn't stop until she's completely unlikable. Yet she doesn't ruin the film. Her whole purpose is to serve as the counterpoint to this messy, liberal family.

Is Meredith the worst? Yes. Does her awfulness bring about some great moments for the "perfect" family? Yes. And for me, that's her entire purpose. (Well, that and her dance.) But to go back to your question of sanity: I think these people are "insane" in a way. They know that they're losing their mother, and they're grieving. If grief doesn't make people do "insane" things, I don't know what does.

DARREN: Booo, I say. Booo! I know that my visceral reaction to the movie is rooted in how and when I saw it: With my mom, when I was home for Christmas from college. We went in expecting a funny/heartwarming family comedy: We got a movie where talented actresses pratfall over spilled food, and then suddenly every things shifts on a dime because CANCER. You're so busy forgetting to laugh that you barely have time to not cry.

Now, cancer plotlines in movies can be incredibly moving. But here, it just feels like a massive bummer airdropped in from out of nowhere. I'm intrigued by your argument that everyone in this movie is acting like a crazy person because they're repressing their grief. But I don't think that really explains the last act of the movie, when everyone becomes a cartoon character. And it also doesn't explain Rachel McAdams, playing the world's least convincing hipster (whoa, sweatpants!). But I don't want to hate on McAdams too much, because she's the most fascinating character in the movie. She hates Sarah Jessica Parker, and she has a weird non-sibling chemistry with Dermot Mulroney: This all feels very grown-up Flowers in the Attic to me.

Am I overanalyzing? I can't help it! You're so right about the cast being great, but The Family Stone itself is such a weird combination of wacky and perfect that they wind up feeling more like a family from a Christmas advertisement. Like, isn't it weird that the family is supposed to be this beacon of liberal tolerance—gay deaf son! Rachel McAdams playing Winona Ryder! Luke Wilson playing Owen Wilson!—but then the end of the movie is the picture of mid-century Americana, everyone happily married and pregnant? The Family Stone tries to have its cake, eat it, smear the cake all over the actors' faces and declare itself a triumph of the human spirit.

SAM: I actually don't think this film is trying to declare itself as anything! I get that it walks this weird line of "is this supposed to be funny or is this supposed to be sad?"—but I think that's what makes it both. The Family Stone is—love squares aside—a very realistic look at a family dynamic in times of coping. Yes, Diane Keaton has cancer, but it never feels schmaltzy. I don't think you're necessarily supposed to cry when you watch it—though if you didn't, I question the existence of your soul, Franich.

I had a similar first experience with the film: Went to see it with the family; was not expecting all the cancer. I didn't love it for that very reason. But upon re-watching, I realized The Family Stone is about funny moments in times of sadness. Honestly? I feel stupid talking so seriously about a movie that I don't feel takes itself too seriously. It's not preaching about the loss of a family member; if anything, it teaches us how not to deal with loss.

And I have to say, I don't think they turn into a Christmas advertisement. Sure, everyone's hair looks great in that final scene—but I think it's also the movie's most depressing moment. It's the picture of a hurting, messed up family. They're not punching each other or laughing or throwing things, but not because they've evolved into the perfect family. It's because the Stones are no longer themselves. Who's to say that Rachel McAdams' character stays with the EMT, or that SJP will even be a member of the family next year? Nobody. In that moment, they're trying to have a good holiday without their matriarch, and they're lost. They'll go back to screaming at each other as soon as possible.

More importantly, how have we not talked about Brian White's chunky sweaters yet? Because: AMAZING.

DARREN: I feel the need to declare that I am not the Grinchiest Grinch on Earth. Last year, I watched It's a Wonderful Life for the first time, and was a blubbery mess for the last twenty minutes. Like, Sam, literally, I was crying for twenty minutes . That hasn't happened since the last time I injured myself playing a sport my parents forced me to play!

So I like what you're saying about the messed-up quality of the Stones. To be honest, I think I'd like the movie more if it doubled down on the grief thing—if you could really feel how Diane Keaton's condition was driving all the members of the family to pretend to be their best selves, until they become their worst selves.

The Family Stone might not be my cup (glass) of tea (eggnog), but I can't get too mad about a movie becoming a new go-to yuletide entertainment. The Franiches were always a Christmas Story family, although at some point my brother and I started watching Scrooged —both of which hail from the '80s. Love, Actually came out more recently, but it's as British as British can be. So even though I don't necessarily approve of vaguely-incestuous sister-swapping, I can support the notion of The Family Stone taking a place in the canon of American Christmas films.

SAM: I would like the record to reflect that one mention of Brian White's sweaters was all it took to open Darren's heart. Because they're that great.

The only other thing I'll say is that I don't disagree with the notion that doubling down on the grief thing would help—yet I'd also hate if the movie did that. Because oddly enough, I find this to be a very fun holiday film. Yes, there's all the grief—but that's just one part of this family's holiday. And while another part involves sister-swapping, so long as it gets me a slap fight between Luke Wilson and Dermot Mulroney, I'm happy.

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The Family Stone Reviews

I just can't stand this group and the ending is unbelievable

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

By the end of the film...I always find myself tearing up.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2022

The Family Stone flips the script by having Thad be loved and supported by all his siblings and both his parents. Nothing can compete with Diane Lane, as Thad’s mom...

Full Review | Sep 26, 2022

There is a lack of craft to the project in nearly every sense that sees great actors give good performances as bad characters.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 28, 2022

Although "Stone" has some problems, it's still a film that works -- thanks to a very agreeable cast.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Nov 19, 2019

Remarkably for a Hollywood movie, this very entertaining comedy proves that the outward good cheer and inward bad vibes of the Christmas season can not only coexist, but amusingly feed upon each other.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 14, 2018

The movie feels sentimental but never cheesy: Our allegiances shift throughout, until we decide everyone deserves our sympathy, everyone has reasons.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 31, 2018

a gob of yuletide Play-Doh

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 17, 2010

The Family Stone works hard to warm the cockles of our hearts. The cast is attractive. The sentiments are commendable. But the love Bezucha wants us to feel for the family couldn't possibly compete with the love they already feel for themselves.

Full Review | Jul 7, 2010

I loved it.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 7, 2007

The farcical elements are much too loaded to provide any real fun, and the Stones come off more as sanctimonious, politically correct left-wing prigs than enchanting.

Full Review | Mar 1, 2007

The movie feels a lot like slacker brother Ben: a little sloppy, mostly predictable, some flashes of poignancy and wisdom, but ultimately doesn't live up to its potential.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 22, 2006

What's so refreshing about Thomas Bezucha's The Family Stone is how it plays off of genre expectations and effortlessly switches back and forth between comedy, romance and tragedy.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 12, 2006

Tocante sem ser melodramático, desenvolve bem seus personagens, cujas interações soam sempre reais. Além disso, o filme oscila com segurança entre o drama e a comédia e conta com um elenco formidável.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 14, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Mar 18, 2006

...turns from endearing to phony even before the first carol is sung.

Full Review | Feb 21, 2006

Full Review | Feb 17, 2006

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FILM REVIEW

Time to Drop the Cellphone and Pick Up a Casserole

By Manohla Dargis

• Dec. 16, 2005

All happy families resemble one another, Tolstoy famously wrote, and each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, but Tolstoy didn't know the Stones, who are happy in a Hollywood kind of way and unhappy in a self-help kind of way. This tribe of ravenous cannibals bares its excellent teeth at anyone who doesn't accommodate the family's preening self-regard. Its most recent target is Meredith Morton, an executive played by Sarah Jessica Parker, who probably hopes to marry into the clan, little realizing that this will leave no Stone unturned and all aimed straight at her head.

Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, "The Family Stone" opens inside a crowded department store, with Meredith talking nonstop into a cellphone while her boyfriend, Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney), buys a gift. Meredith steps out of her bubble only long enough to correct Everett's gift choice brusquely and make the salesgirl feel bad. (In some flicks, cellphones are the new cigarettes, a sure sign of incivility.) There are few character types Hollywood loves to hate more than the female business executive, what the movies once called a "career woman." And with her brittle efficiency and tight chignon, Meredith looks precisely like one of those types for whom comeuppance and a more relaxed hairstyle are right around the corner.

That corner and that comeuppance will be revealed inside the studiously tasteful Stone family manse, to which Everett squires Meredith home for the holidays. Located in a picture-perfect New England college town (actually, Madison, N.J.), the house looks more persuasively lived in than many big-studio interiors, perhaps because of all the books crammed onto shelves and piled on night tables. The Stone patriarch, Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), is a professor, and the family's vaguely bookish, boho vibe is reinforced by the Susan Sontag-style splash of white that punctuates the otherwise dark head of his wife, Sybil (Diane Keaton), a woman of multiple moods, if not personalities. If Kelly serves as the family's foundation, Sybil is a lot like the house itself, a warm womb in which each family member can seek refuge.

There is, of course, something irresistible about having a maternal womb of one's own, and not just as a pretext for cheap puns. The hitch here is that Mom is fairly monstrous, and most of her five kids fairly unbearable. The exceptions are Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), who, perhaps because she has her own family, is merely bland, and Ben (Luke Wilson), whose laid-back charm owes much to the actor playing him. Less appealing are the baby Stone, Amy (Rachel McAdams), and Thad (Ty Giordano), who is deaf and about to adopt a child with his partner, Patrick (Brian White). Shrouded in saintliness and as neutered as geldings, Thad and Patrick offer further proof that as far as pop culture representation is concerned, gay men are fine, as long as they're redecorating or straighter than straight.

It takes a while for Sybil's monstrosity to emerge, mainly because the reliably appealing Ms. Keaton, with her fluttering hands and gorgeous smile, radiates such likability. The film doesn't present the character as a monster; this is, after all, a paean to that beloved fiction called the sanctity of the family. More interesting, though, the film is also a clear attempt to bottle the manic energy and generous spirit of madcap classics like George Cukor's wonderful 1938 "Holiday." This partly explains Mr. Bezucha's unfortunate attempts at broad physical comedy (flying casseroles, etc.), which even a dexterous performer like Ms. Parker has trouble with. This actress fares better facing off against Ms. Keaton, whose character carries a dark secret that will be a secret only to those who don't notice the rampaging elephant in the room.

In a better movie, these strong-willed women would be ready-made friends rather than instant combatants. A better movie would also bring Amy, the second most unbearable family member, into a sisterhood, rather than turn her into the resident baddie. (Amy carries a National Public Radio tote bag, a red flag for intolerance, if ever there was one.) Like Meredith and Sybil, Amy is the other putatively difficult woman in this film, a shrew-in-training who spews bile at Meredith as readily as Linda Blair once spewed pea soup. Like Ms. Keaton and Ms. Parker, Ms. McAdams is such an engaging screen presence that she holds your attention and sympathy despite the handicap presented by her character's personality or, rather, sex, which here are one and the same thing.

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• DVD & Streaming

The Family Stone

• Comedy , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Sarah Jessica Parker as Meredith Morton; Dermot Mulroney as Everett Stone; Rachel McAdams as Amy Stone; Luke Wilson as Ben Stone; Tyrone Giordano as Thad Stone; Elizabeth Reaser as Susannah Stone; Brian J. White as Patrick; Diane Keaton as Sybil Stone; Craig T. Nelson as Kelly Stone; Claire Danes as Julie Morton

Home Release Date

• Thomas Bezucha

Distributor

• 20th Century Fox

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Meredith Morton gives a whole new meaning to the word uptight. That means there’s only one thing for a Hollywood screenwriter to do: introduce her to a family that puts the loose in loosey-goosey. Everett Stone brings Meredith home to meet his family at Christmastime, intending to propose to her. But his mean-girl sister, Amy, and laid-back stoner brother, Ben, set about “welcoming” her first.

It’s oil and water. No matter what Meredith does, she just reinforces her image as a tightly wound harpy, which invites Amy and Ben to wind her tighter. Desperate to make a good impression but being driven crazy, Meredith invites her sister, Julie, to come keep her company.

In the meantime, despite the Stones’ apparent bon vivance, tragedy lurks just below the surface with matriarch Sybil’s health. Take Everett’s growing doubts about his relationship with Meredith, throw in her pretty sister and factor in Ben’s sudden attraction to, of all people, Meredith, and you have the makings of an utterly predictable and not very romantic comedy.

Positive Elements

The Stones are a family of free spirits and eccentrics, but they all tolerate each other’s foibles with relatively good grace. Ben at first is all too willing to yank Meredith’s chain, but he eventually comes to feel compassion for her. Sybil and her husband, Kelly, have weathered a past serious illness, and their marriage seems the stronger for it. Son Thad is deaf, and everyone supplements his or her speech with sign language so that Thad can be part of the conversation, even if he’s not being spoken to directly.

Spiritual Elements

Sexual & romantic content.

Sybil has a distressingly casual attitude toward casual sex. So casual that she actually disapproves when Meredith refuses to sleep in the same bed with Everett, calling it “silly.” (It should be noted that Meredith’s “stand” results more from queasiness at sleeping with Everett in his childhood bedroom than any moral qualms.) Sybil is fond of using crass sexual terms in front of her family, and picks a particularly colorful one to refer to Amy’s losing her virginity—not disapprovingly, mind you. (Meredith repeats it later.)

Sybil lifts her pajama top to reveal a mastectomy scar. Her husband caresses it to show that he loves her despite the loss of her breast. The two kiss, with sex implied as the camera cuts away.

Thad brings home his homosexual lover, Patrick, and the Stone family celebrates and defends his lifestyle. Indeed, Sybil half-jokingly says she wishes all her sons were gay.

After a night of drunkenness, Meredith wakes up in Ben’s bed, thinking she’s had sex with him. (They haven’t, although several people think they have.) A sleazy sight gag involving an erection and other conversations about sex round things out.

Violent Content

Beyond a few pratfalls, Meredith slaps Ben. Ben and Everett get in a fistfight and wrestle on the floor, bloodying each other’s faces.

Crude or Profane Language

One use of the euphemism “friggin.” One use of the s-word and a handful of other swear words. Meredith misuses God’s name at least eight times, and Sybil adds “d–n” to her profanity three times. Jesus’ name is abused once. Sybil apparently says a “very bad word” in sign language, too.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Ben takes Meredith to a bar, where she proceeds to get extremely drunk. Ben also drinks, and their table is lined with empty beer bottles. Meredith buys a round of beers for the entire bar and later says they should try to “score some pot.” In another example of casual parenting Ben smokes marijuana from a pipe while talking with his dad, which leads Sybil to ask Ben, “You and Daddy have fun getting stoned?” (Dad didn’t partake, but neither did he object.) Several people have wine with a meal.

Other Noteworthy Elements

The only “normal” and well-adjusted couple in this story is the gay one. And that says a lot about what the filmmakers think about homosexuality. The Stones emphatically state that homosexuality is not a choice, and even though Meredith doesn’t mean to be disrespectful when broaching the topic of homosexual couples adopting children, she’s portrayed as an intolerant prude for having any concerns at all. Her concerns, for the record, are logistical ones, not moral ones. She’s worried about the layer of difficulty homosexuality adds to one’s life in our current culture.

It’s implied that the only way Meredith can loosen up is by getting drunk.

The Family Stone tries very hard—too hard—to be a feel-good Christmas movie. Instead, we’re “treated” to a series of nails-on-the-blackboard moments. This story had potential, but it fails many times on the most basic level. To start with, you wonder what Everett ever saw in the insufferably uptight Meredith. There is not for one moment an emotional closeness between them. Various people say and do things, not because they logically grow out of their character, but because they’re needed merely to advance the story. Really, who would feel free to invite her sister to someone else’s house for Christmas without asking first? But how else were they going to get the “other woman” into the story?

The film’s casual attitude toward illicit sex grates on the nerves far worse than sloppy storytelling, though. Hearing a mom crudely joke about her daughter losing her virginity had me cringing. There is also the not-so-subtle glorification of homosexuality. (Director Thomas Bezucha’s only previous film is a gay-themed romantic comedy.) Take all this, factor in the drug abuse and the profanity, and I can only conclude that this Stone deserves to sink like one.

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The Family Stone Review

16 Dec 2005

103 minutes

Family Stone, The

Spending what Americans call “the holidays” with one’s own family can be traumatic enough, so it’s a bit odd that anyone would want to torture themselves further by seeing movies about other people’s Christmas or Thanksgiving gatherings. A decade ago, Jodie Foster assembled an eclectic cast (including, coincidentally, Claire Danes) for the hit-and-miss comedy drama Home For The Holidays; Thomas Bezucha aims for much the same territory with his sophomore effort as writer-director — and manages to score more hits than misses.

The Family Stone comprises bohemian parents Sybil and Kelly (Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson), devoted daughters Amy and Susannah (Rachel McAdams and Elizabeth Reaser), and three sons: a deaf gay (Tyrone Giordano) with a black boyfriend (Brian White), a feckless stoner (Luke Wilson), and an uptight businessman, Everett (Dermot Mulroney), whose new girlfriend rubs everyone up the wrong way from the moment she brings her uptight, Upper-West-Side attitude to the vast New England family home. The family is so close-knit, poor Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) is virtually doomed before she steps out of the car, watched by the crowd at the kitchen window. For all their tolerant values and political correctness, the Stones have mercilessly pre-judged Meredith — much to the annoyance of Everett, who has marriage in mind.

It’s a recipe with ingredients taken from everything from Meet The Fockers to Sweet Home Alabama. But Bezucha is thankfully less concerned with exploring familiar fish-out of-water themes than breathing life into multi-faceted, flawed characters, who reveal new complexities as the story progresses. Likewise, his commendable script is mostly successful at juggling elements of comedy, drama, romance, and even trickier prospects such as poignancy and farce.

Only twice does the film stretch credibility, and thus patience: first, when Meredith finally frees her “inner freak” after a few beers with Luke Wilson’s affable Ben; and later, when the arrival of her down-to-earth sister Julie (Danes) sends the plot in yet another direction. And, talking of direction, Bezucha’s is far less technically assured than his writing, but the uniformly high quality of the performances — Keaton and Parker in particular — smooths over the cracks.

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The family stone.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 2 Reviews
• Kids Say 6 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Cynthia Fuchs , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Bittersweet story won't appeal to younger teens.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this romantic comedy focuses on family tensions emerging when grown children come home for the Christmas holidays. Characters argue and pout; brothers fight, causing black eyes and cut cheeks. Characters drink at a bar, to the point that one passes out and doesn't remember how she ends up in…

Why Age 15+?

Drinking in bar, to point of passing out and forgetting the evening; references

Minor language ("damn," "s--t").

Sexual activity hinted at (woman wakes up in wrong brother's bed); gay couple ki

Brief shot of Santa/Norelco ad on TV; beer labels visible in bar; an NPR logo ma

Some fighting between brothers, treated as comedy and leaving black eyes and cut

Any Positive Content?

Holidays are stressful, but family members really love each other.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking in bar, to point of passing out and forgetting the evening; references to pot-smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sexual activity hinted at (woman wakes up in wrong brother's bed); gay couple kisses chastely; parents kiss and snuggle in bed, revealing very briefly the mother's mastectomy scar.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brief shot of Santa/Norelco ad on TV; beer labels visible in bar; an NPR logo marks a character's "liberal" leanings.

Violence & Scariness

Some fighting between brothers, treated as comedy and leaving black eyes and cut faces.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Parents need to know that this romantic comedy focuses on family tensions emerging when grown children come home for the Christmas holidays. Characters argue and pout; brothers fight, causing black eyes and cut cheeks. Characters drink at a bar, to the point that one passes out and doesn't remember how she ends up in her fiancé's brother's bed. One character is accused of racism, homophobia, and general "uptightness." While it's mainly comedic, the movie also includes a plot thread where a character is dying of cancer (brief glimpse of her mastectomy scar). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (6)

Based on 2 parent reviews

One of my favorite Christmas films

Such a great family movie for older or more mature teens., what's the story.

In THE FAMILY STONE, the liberal-leaning, proud Stones are upset when good boy Everett ( Dermot Mulroney ) brings home a bad fiancée. Granted, Meredith ( Sarah Jessica Parker ) doesn't mean to be bad. In fact, she tries very hard to be liked. But she's just tense, fretful, and sometimes ignorant, making her a target for the free-thinking Stones. The family includes parents Sybil ( Diane Keaton ) and Kelly ( Craig T. Nelson ), and the kids: deaf Thad (Tyrone Giordano) and his African American partner Patrick (Brian J. White), pregnant Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser) and her charmingly brainy daughter Elizabeth (Savannah Stehlin), pot-smoking documentary filmmaker Ben ( Luke Wilson ), and the wittily "mean one," Amy ( Rachel McAdams ). Before such judges, every word Meredith speaks seems to indict her. Only Ben supports her. He encourages her: "You have the freak flag, you just don't fly it." Flying that flag will prove Meredith's salvation.

Is It Any Good?

Thomas Bezucha's film means well and offers fine performances, but is in the end tripped up by holiday-family-gathering movie clichés. The point of The Family Stone isn't really measuring up, though this is, of course, the presumption of Christmas-family-gathering movies.

While it provides pleasurable moments (Susannah watching Judy Garland sing in Meet Me in St. Louis on TV, Brad finding the perfect gift for Amy), The Family Stone is, finally, less brave than Meredith, resorting at last to cookie-cutter resolutions like slapsticky fights and everyone's-happy couplings.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the family relationships. How do the kids' behaviors resemble their parents'? How do the Stones come to see their presumed open-mindedness as insular and judgmental? How might Meredith's transformation from tense to sociable (here pushed along by a night of drinking), be achieved in a less stereotypical way?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 16, 2005
• On DVD or streaming : May 2, 2006
• Cast : Diane Keaton , Rachel McAdams , Sarah Jessica Parker
• Director : Thomas Bezucha
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 102 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : some sexual content including dialogue, and drug references.
• Last updated : December 2, 2023

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What to watch next.

Home for the Holidays

The Royal Tenenbaums

The Holiday

Romance movies, movies that inspire compassion.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Classic Review: The Family Stone (2005)

Overall Score

Rating summary.

The Family Stone is a tearjerker that has some feverous supporters while also having haters who hate it in the same proportion. The film never seems to aim higher than being an enjoyable Christmas movie, and the fact that it has so much heated feelings about it means, for better or worse, it managed to rise above its original intent.

Everett (Dermot Mulroney) brings his girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home for the holidays. He intends to propose to her on Christmas morning, and he wants to do it with his grandmother’s ring. His family are going through some tough times, and besides Everett’s brother Ben (Luke Wilson), the rest of the family doesn’t welcome her very warmly, following the lead from the matriarch, Sybil (Keaton) who show her teeth the minute Meredith comes in. The father, Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) tries playing safe, but the rest of the family shows how uncomfortable they feel with her presence, especially the younger sister, Amy (McAdams) who openly disdains her every chance she has.

Meredith doesn’t help. She’s impossibly insecure and stuck up, very contrived and unease with everything. Of course, she’s an easy target, and her insecurity rises exponentially while the family gathers, including two more sons, the very pregnant Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser) and Thad (Tyrone) who is anxiously waiting with his husband Patrick (Brian White) for news about the adoption process they are doing. Things get so awful Meredith calls for the help of her sister Julie (Danes), and the moment she arrives, her connection with Everett is easily noticeable.

The Family Stone is a true ensemble film. Its cast, by far, is the biggest draw and its biggest strength. Everyone here works wonders together, let by one of the most inspired performances by Keaton in the last couple decades. This was probably the first (or one of the first) times she took the role of the matriarch, an archetype she ended up embracing the next years with ups and downs. According to the director, he knew he needed to nail Keaton as Sybil and then everything else would follow. And he was right. Her performance is what we come to expect from her, but she brings a warmth and equally balanced fierceness that makes Sybil totally magnetic.

On the far side is Parker, who also nails it here, creating a very uptight Meredith. She drives us nuts, but she is also pretty funny to watch. Parker manages to build Meredith’s transformation in a very balanced way, and even her being infuriating, we cannot help but cheer for her when we see who she is when she manages to loosen up. She has an amazing scene in the bathroom with Danes’ Julie, when we see she is enjoying her wrongdoings, but she is still trying to hold it in. Between Keaton and Parker, the entire cast seems at ease with their characters, creating a true sense of a family. Even the small characters like Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser) have a few moments to put on a good impression and Luke Wilson as Ben Stone, Danes and Craig T. Nelson are truly great as Julie and Kelly Stone. The standout, though, is McAdams, irresistible as the furious Amy.

Despite the great cast and the enjoyment The Family Stone brings, it’s also not very memorable. It’s entertaining, it’s touching in many moments (the conversation between Nelson and Keaton is beautiful) and it ends just the way it should. And that’s it. The situation between the two couples is charming but it doesn’t really make that much sense when one comes to think of it, and in some moments the characters seem really insane. That hurts the film, but the cast keeps it going forward.

still courtesy of 20th Century Studios

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Sarah Jessica Parker Answers Almost Every Question We Have About The Family Stone

My favorite genre of movie is “bustling, dramatic upper-middle-class white family loses their minds during one particularly charged weekend.” The Family Stone — released in 2005 to middling reviews — is this genre’s crowning achievement. Sarah Jessica Parker stars as the career-driven Meredith Morton, who spends Christmas with her boyfriend Everett’s (Dermot Mulroney) New England family. Meredith’s nervousness reads as iciness from the moment Everett’s car pulls into the Stone’s driveway, and the family immediately circles the wagons when they see that their prodigal son has decided to marry her. If Everett’s mother Sybil ( Diane Keaton ) isn’t undercutting her every action, his younger sister Amy ( Rachel McAdams ) sips coffee and sets traps for Meredith in every conversation. Eventually, Meredith calls for backup: She calls for her sister Julie ( Claire Danes ), and the Stone family is immediately smitten with the more outgoing Morton.

I mean, there’s really no smooth way to say this next part: Everett, boneheaded, falls for Julie. Meredith, against her better judgement, warms to Everett’s weed-smoking, sweatpants-wearing brother Ben (Luke Wilson). The whole family is reeling from the news that Sybil’s breast cancer has returned. There’s a deeply uncomfortable dinner scene where Meredith is cluelessly homophobic, and another scene where she accidentally points to a black character as a charades clue for The Bride Wore Black . Stunningly, the only set piece missing here is a beloved family dog.

And yet I love this movie unironically. I watch it every Christmas. I watch it even when it’s not Christmas. I love Rachel McAdams’s scowl. I love Diane Keaton’s pristine white button-up, and the way she wears it under a frumpy robe. I love Luke Wilson’s oversize North Face parka, which he definitely could not afford. I love that Mulroney’s character is named Everett, because that’s my cousin’s name. Also, The Family Stone is fun! And it’s the rare studio movie that features three women, and, instead of begging you to like them, presents them with sharp sides and questionable intentions intact.

Every year I basically die because no one wants to listen to me talk about this movie at length. (The militia of Family Stone warriors is small, and it’s mostly just me and Bobby Finger .) So I decided to talk to Sarah Jessica Parker about it.

Can you give me a sense of what your life was like when you signed on to The Family Stone ? I think you were winding down work on Sex and the City . I’m not sure if I had finished Sex and the City yet, actually. When I first met [director] Tom Bezucha and the offer came, I had recently finished. I was feeling good. I had just completed a long run as part of a project that I was proud of and had obviously changed the course of my life. I felt very privileged, and it felt like we were able to stop [the show] in a way that we all felt good about.

But also I did have a young son, and I was looking forward very much to being his parent and having real time with him. When Family Stone came up, I remember that I had some time between wrapping Sex and the City the series and starting a movie. I knew my son was going to come with me, which was really important. That’s kind of the beauty of movies: They’re a finite period. While they are intense and all-consuming, it’s kind of like a window. As a parent who wanted to spend time with my child, it was ideal.

What was your meeting with Tom like? I was excited that he wanted me to play the part. He had very specific ideas about this character. He offered a really nice challenge. He wanted her to be skilled in ways that I had not been onscreen. There was a sort of chilly quality to her, where her neuroses were so evident, and yet she works so hard to mask that. She was wound so tight.

The way she moves and behaves, it’s all very restrained. There was also that stillness. Carrie Bradshaw was very physical. She moved around a lot; she gesticulated a lot. Hands were an important part of the way she told stories, and Tom really didn’t want that, which was exciting to me. We really did talk a lot about that. Even in the process of shooting, there would be times that he would remind me of some of those original landmarks that we were shooting for.

Last night I read some old reviews about the movie, and I’ve become so defensive of Meredith. People call her unlikable or shrill, which are obviously very loaded labels. I think she’s just really nervous — who can’t relate to that? Did it bother you, how she was received? I don’t read reviews, luckily. I’m always curious when there is a general opinion about a woman not being likable. I take personal offense to it, as well. I really struggle with how to have those conversations with people and not be defensive, but actually talk about what those words mean, and why qualities that are called unlikable when they are attributed to a female character in cinema are not at all applied to a man. I’ve had that even recently with Divorce . It’s so curious. It’s not without frustration on my part.

I didn’t think she was unlikable at all. Especially in romantic comedies, there’s this idea about likable, relatable gals. I think it does a huge disservice to the billions of woman who are all wonderfully different. Somebody is nervous, or lacks confidence? I found none of it unlikable. In fact, I found her compelling. I was drawn to her because of her exhibited neuroses.

I think Meredith was probably somebody who had very high standards for herself and lived in a world that was about discipline, appearance, success, ambition, and personal achievement. I think it made her actually quite touching. I really liked her, and I was sorry that she suffered so much, that she was so hard on herself and so hard on others. She was making an attempt to have a full life, a life that she thought was a portrait of success. I found those qualities very human.

On the other side of this dynamic is Diane Keaton. Were you nervous? Was it hard to not take her attitude with your character personally? I was nervous about it. She and I actually had worked together before; we did First Wives Club . I didn’t spend a lot of time on camera with her, but I had been around her a little bit. I was nervous, but at least I had some exchanges with her previous to that. She was very nervous-making. She was tough on me.

Tough how? I wasn’t certain in the beginning whether she was being personally tough on me, whether it was her relationship to the character. I came to understand that it was very much about the dynamic that the characters, what are they engaging in. She was tough on me in a way, but it was very specific to the on-camera story, and not personal and not mean. It was a huge joy to play those scenes with her, and wonderfully terrifying.

I loved working with her because I learned a lot about … I got — it was sort of a backstage pass to better understanding why I loved her so as an actor, and I do, and have for many, many years.

Can you tell me what you appreciate about her as an actor, about her process? She’s very particular about the work. She worked extremely hard. She asks a lot of questions. She’s serious about the work. There’s a lightness to her. There’s a sort of soufflé thing about Diane Keaton. She has this really buoyant — do you know what I mean?

Yeah. She’s witty and she’s clever and she’s seemingly scattered in a way. But that does not actually speak to the enormous intelligence and seriousness that she brings to her work. It’s not an accident, her work. It’s not easy. It’s thoughtful and considered.

I hope I’m not saying something I shouldn’t, but she wears headphones on the set. To stay focused, she’ll wear headphones basically until they call action. I think it’s a very interesting way to stay focused. A set is wonderfully chaotic. There’s a lot going on, and a lot of last-minute adjustments, people talking and going over lines, all the various disciplines on the set taking care of what they need to do. It’s a strangely chaotic place considering what has to happen the second the camera rolls, which is that everything goes quiet and still.

Who do you think was more vicious, the Diane Keaton character or the Rachel McAdams character? You probably know the movie better than I do, I’ve only seen it once. My guess is that the mother remains the most important person, the person whose approval you most need. I think that family, when they circled the wagons, is very intense and formidable combatants, but the gravitas of a mother kind of eclipses [anyone else].

How many times did the three of you have to fall into that egg dish, the breakfast strata? Many times. Many times.

Please tell me everything about it. I know we had a bunch of costumes ready. We did it a lot because it was covered from a bunch of different angles. As always, before those scenes, it’s a lot of discussion about how it’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen. You try to control as much as you can simply I think for a camera to be able to capture it. But it has to feel completely out of control and reckless and spontaneous.

I was absolutely completely covered with it. I recall going in for coverage, and having to stay covered in it. Like, I couldn’t clean up. I had to stay because they were going in for tighter shots, and we couldn’t try to re-create how it had spilled on me. I spent many, many hours staying in that outfit.

I love that stuff. I love falling. I love all the physical stuff. I love props. For me, the more real all that can be, the better the work is, the better I feel like I’m actually having the experience, so I don’t want anyone else to do it for me. I don’t care if I’m covered in some Swedish egg casserole or whatever that was. I definitely know that I was the last of the day. I know that they covered me last. I spent many hours in some version of that, but it didn’t really bother me.

After the strata scene, I think the second most infamous is the dinner scene: Meredith has a really hard time asking Everett’s gay brother and his partner if they’d really want a gay son. Was that excruciating to film, someone who’s wrong but having such a hard time explaining even what she’s thinking? Yeah, it was excruciating because of the silences, you know? I didn’t want anything about that to be easy, and I didn’t want it to feel familiar. You do so many takes of scenes like that because you’re moving around the table very slowly with the camera so that everybody’s covered in the scene, and that really is a scene where you really need to be on people at different times — in the editing room, you need all those choices.

So, yes, it was, because there’s nobody to help you. You really are alone in it. She’s trying so hard to defend an argument — to course correct really quickly — but it’s a long-held belief. She isn’t arriving at this as a conversation piece. It’s not like you’re joining in and saying, “I just wondered, ‘Did you ever think that maybe it might be easier if you hadn’t made that choice, or if this wasn’t your life?’” That is much more painful because it was so revealing about her, but also she was so much on her own. And, yes, all the actors were looking at me. I wanted to feel isolated, so it was excruciating, but it felt appropriately so.

Was Meredith’s tic always the throat-clearing? Yes. From the beginning, I think it was written into the script.

Do you remember the cast doing a lot of improv, or finding things on the day? I don’t think there’s a lot of improv. Diane can do it and does it beautifully. I tend not to because I think it’s hard to do it really, really well. I’m sure you’ve seen many cases when people think they’re good at it. It’s sort of awful when someone isn’t great at it and doesn’t add something meaningful.

Would you be mad if your own sister stole your fiancé? I guess it would depend on the circumstances.

What!! I mean, I don’t know. I guess that would be pretty hurtful. You mean like a current fiancé, not someone that is broken up, but that somebody who is in fact, to your knowledge, your fiancé?

Yes. And you are engaged?

Mm-hmm. Just like in the movie. Well, yes. It would be very upsetting. That would be awful. Also, it’s very hard to imagine that my sister — I have many sisters. I can’t imagine any of them doing that. Our tastes are very different, let’s just start with that. Yeah, I think that would be probably really problematic for everybody, for the entire family.

I want to go back to the kitchen scene for a second because that’s maybe my favorite line reading in the movie: You’re covered in the food and sort of whimper, “What’s so great about you guys?” I don’t even remember when I say it. You have to remind me, I’m so sorry.

No, you’re fine! I literally watch this movie every year, so I’m very familiar with it. Maybe I should watch it again. Maybe my daughters would love it. They’re 9. Are they too young, or are they the right age?

I think that’s the perfect age. I think it’s totally appropriate. You have to show it to them. But anyway, it’s when the strata has just dropped in the kitchen. You’re looking at Diane, sort of like, Why would I even want to be a part of this family? “What’s so great about you guys?” Diane says, “Well, you know, we’re all we’ve got.” Right, yeah. Thank you.

I’m truly recounting this movie to you, I’m so sorry. Oh my God, no, thank you.

Since you have kids, have you ever considered that maybe you’ll become this Sybil character when or if they bring someone home for the holidays? You know, I thought a lot about my children and their romantic life. Matthew [ Broderick , her husband] and I would do our very best to be decent and civilized and hospitable to somebody who we’d think is not deserving or worthy of our children.

I’ve also said to [her son] James Wilkie, “You know, when you go to college, you can come home” … or when he’s married, when he’s a grown-up person and he has a romantic partner. I would tell him he was going to marry a woman named Mary, and I have no idea why. I was like, “You understand you have to come home every Friday for dinner, with or without your partner.” I always imagine that it will be like, How could this have happened? That they’d be the most perfect, the most suitable choice, that we’d get so lucky.

I hope that we’re a house that our kids want to come home to, and that people want to spend time with us for holidays. It would be a thrill. I don’t know what you do if you don’t care for a child’s romantic selection. I don’t know how you’re supposed to get through that. Looking back, I know for sure that I brought some people home that, later on, my brothers and parents revealed to me they were so relieved when we broke up.

I love that. But they were very generous [with the guests, at the time].

Would you, Sarah Jessica, pick the Luke Wilson character or the Dermot Mulroney character? This is very hard because I love those actors so much.

Okay, but there’s definitely a wrong answer here. Do you want to tell me what my answer should be? Do you want me to pick Luke?

Yeah. Only because Everett was consistently the worst. Sorry. That dinner scene — he abandons Meredith in that dinner scene! He doesn’t even try to help her. I could not respect him after that. Well, you know more than I do. Of course she should end up with Luke. Of course she should!

Luke has a line, he says, “You have a freak flag, Meredith, but you just don’t fly it.” I wanted to hear what that advice means to you. I guess what he meant, and what it would mean to me, is you’re not allowing yourself to be your unique self. You’re not allowing yourself to be flawed or wrong or silly or ridiculous or vulnerable. You’re not allowing yourself to be your true person. I guess that’s certainly what I would mean if I said that. What do you think changed in Meredith?

I think it’s what you said, that she’s just relaxed and herself. A lot of the anxiety comes from not doing that, which I think is what makes the performance so great. Well thank you.

As I’ve said, this is my favorite holiday movie and I watch it all the time, but especially this time of year. Do you have a favorite holiday movie? We don’t watch a lot of movies at Christmas. It’s very strange. I didn’t grow up watching movies at Christmas. At Christmas, we always went to whatever the big movie was, as a family.

Actually, we used to watch — now, I’m remembering this — when you could start renting movies on your own we always watched Albert Brooks’s movies at Christmas. Always.

Which ones? We watched Defending Your Life . We watched Modern Romance . Real Life . We were obsessed with Albert Brooks, and we watched them over and over again.

Well, thank you so much for talking to me and letting me indulge — Thank you. I feel like you know so much more. But mostly thank you for loving Meredith. It’s so touching and so nice to hear.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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The Family Stone

THE FAMILY STONE is a comic story about the annual holiday gathering of a New England family, the Stones. The eldest son brings his girlfriend home to meet his parents, brothers and sisters. The bohemian Stones greet their visitor -- a high-powered, controlling New Yorker -- with a mix of awkwardness, confusion and hostility. Before the holiday is over, relationships will unravel while new ones are formed, secrets will be revealed, and the family Stone will come together through its extraordinary capacity for love. Sybil Stone (DIANE KEATON) is the strong-willed matriarch who is at the heart of the Stone family, an outspoken woman who wants only the best for her five children. Strikingly beautiful, her face now reflects a recent note of brittleness or fatigue, suggesting that perhaps Sybil carries a secret. Sybil and her family are not pleased with the arrival of eldest son Everett’s girlfriend, Meredith Morton (SARAH JESSICA PARKER). Meredith is an immaculately composed, contemporary New York City-based career woman whose tailored suits, upswept hair and subtle makeup speak volumes about her personality, making an indelible impression on both friends and strangers. When she meets the Stones, the results are chaotic and unforgettable. After her initial trial by fire with the Stones, Meredith enlists the help of her younger sister, Julie Morton (CLAIRE DANES). Julie, who works at a foundation awarding grants to artists, isn’t nearly as tightly wound as Meredith. Julie enters the “lions’ den” with much more ease than her sister, but Julie’s visit ultimately leads to further complications, especially for Everett Stone (DERMOT MULRONEY). Everett is a successful executive in Manhattan whose charm comes from the fact that he seems to be utterly unaware of the effect his attractiveness and easy-going nature has on others. Everett’s brother, Ben Stone (LUKE WILSON), seems to have strayed the furthest from his family’s New England roots. A film editor living on the West Coast, Ben’s unpredictable, sometimes mischievous nature is reflected in the ultra-casual clothes he wears. Ben’s and Everett’s sister, Amy Stone (RACHEL McADAMS), is the passionate, outspoken and youngest member of the family. She bears her luminous natural beauty with an aggressive indifference -- and with a near open hostility toward Meredith. The family patriarch, Kelly Stone (CRAIG T. NELSON), is a college professor in his sixties who is still an impressive figure. Kelly has an obvious love for his family that drives his every move. Elizabeth Reaser plays another Stone sibling, Susannah, and Ty Giordano portrays Thad Stone, the youngest son, who is both deaf and gay. Giordano is a deaf actor who, like his on-screen character, reads lips and speaks, in addition to signing. Brian White plays Thad’s partner, Patrick. THE FAMILY STONE is set during Christmas, in a small college town, because the holidays resonate for families like no other time of the year. The Stone household is characterized by its absence of traditional social boundaries. They routinely discuss everything from smoking pot to the loss of virginity. No subject is taboo -- especially the topic of Meredith Morton. A clash of cultures is inevitable and swift; soon Meredith realizes the contempt with which she is perceived, so she moves out of the Stone house and into a local inn. Despite efforts by Everett’s brother Ben to console her, Meredith asks her sister Julie to join her for emotional support. Julie’s arrival -- and its unexpected effect on Everett -- turns the family Stone upside-down.

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The Family Stone

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

It's a comedy with a dash of tragedy — the kind of thing that usually makes me puke. But I fell for this one. The sublime Sarah Jessica Parker dares to be unlikable as the uptight careerist fiancee whom Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) brings home to meet his family for Christmas. Mom ( Diane Keaton ) and dad (Craig T. Nelson) are appalled. Sister Amy (Rachel McAdams, irresistible) thinks she's a bitch. Slacker brother Ben (Luke Wilson, giving the performance of his career) takes her to bed. Writer-director Thomas Bezucha lays it on thick, but he knows the mad-dog anarchy of family life and gives the laughs a sharp comic edge. Keaton, a sorceress at blending humor and heartbreak, honors the film with a grace that makes it stick in the memory.

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The family stone.

Sybil Stone (Diane Keaton, "Something's Gotta Give") harbors a secret as she awaits her family's gathering for the Christmas holidays in the old New England homestead so she's glad that her children are focused on the imminent arrival of their brother's uptight New Yorker girlfriend whom only Amy (Rachel McAdams, "Red Eye") has met and instantly despised. Sybil keeps a more open mind, but when Meredith Morton's (Sarah Jessica Parker, HBO's "Sex and the City") attempts to blend into the family are like oil's with water, Sybil is terrified that Everett (Dermot Mulroney, "The Wedding Date") is going to ask her for "The Family Stone."

Laura's Review: C+

Writer/director Thomas Bezucha's ("Big Eden") leap into bigger budget filmmaking is blessed with some terrific performances that help, but cannot hide, some severe problems. Still, "The Family Stone" is a far better holiday alternative than the usual Yuletide themed films ("Christmas with the Kranks," various Tim Allen efforts). Sybil sits wistfully in front of her Christmas tree for a few quiet moments before her extensive family begins their boisterous holiday reunion. Heavily pregnant Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser, "Stay") and her daughter Elizabeth (Savannah Stehlin) have already nested there when brother Thad (Tyrone Giordano, "A Lot Like Love"), who is deaf, arrives with his black lover Patrick (Brian White, "Mr 3000"). Liberal, progressive mom Sybil warns arriving Ben (Luke Wilson, "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy") that Christmas isn't going to be clothing optional this year given their company, as Amy thrills to relay to one and all how awful their new guest is. After Everett's rental pulls up, Meredith, awkward in suit and heels, is escorted from the car by dad Kelly (Craig T. Nelson, "The Devil's Advocate," "The Skulls") painfully aware of the clan grouped watching from the window. Meredith is obviously a high strung bundle of insecurity. While laid back Ben tries to make her feel at home, Meredith does herself no favors by insisting she and Everett have separate rooms, displacing Amy, then nervously boring everyone with the dry, rambling tale of how she and Everett met. Then Amy sets her up to look like a racist during a game of charades and Meredith flies off the handle, insisting she move to the local inn where she'll have her sister, Julie (Claire Danes, "Shopgirl"), come to join her. On Christmas Eve, Julie, whose assimilation into the Stone family is so smooth it's barely noticeable, watches in horror as her sister digs herself a hole with an ill considered remark about parents of gay children. Everett doesn't follow Meredith when she flees the dinner table in tears, but another Stone brother does. In some ways, "The Family Stone" can be seen as the wintertime counterpart to the summery "Junebug." Both films feature families tied to a specific small town American region who are meeting a son's sophisticated urban partner for the first time. But where "Junebug's" George was a blank for a reason, someone the other characters projected onto and reflected away from, "Stone's" Everett, is just a blank. Dermot Mulroney's second appearance this year as a new fiance has even less personality than his first and that sucking sound you hear is the hole he leaves in this film's heart. An even bigger problem is the character of Julie, and Danes cannot fix what Bezucha has left broken. The writer/director has failed to work out a believable reason for her appearance and the romantic entanglement she becomes wrapped up in is equally mishandled and has little chemistry. Bezucha also exiles Thad and Patrick from the family manse presumably just to populate the town inn with more than just the Morton sisters. Which is a shame, because most other aspects of "The Family Stone" work. Diane Keaton is terrific as the family matriarch, an L.L. Bean liberal whose heart only hardens when her cubs are threatened. Keaton really does seem to have the ability to keep a large household in check while maintaining a sense of humor. She also has a wonderfully needy lovemaking scene with Nelson. Equally good is Sarah Jessica Parker, who couldn't have chosen a more different New Yorker from Carrie Bradshaw for her first post-"Sex and the City" role. Parker makes Meredith one of those socially inept people one feels embarrassed for - the woman's a mess and it is a relief to see her eventually let her hair down (too bad Bezucha makes it literal, but that she must not once, but twice crawl back into her shell before she's comfortable out of it is one of his better pieces of character development). Rachel McAdams's rising star continues its ascent with her totally different mean girl turn. She's the family gossip, an irrepressible trouble churner, but she's able to take the lesson she's taught and thaws out nicely. Elizabeth Reaser is McAdams' supporting equivalent - having made an impression in her "Stay" debut, she's a confident and warm presence here. While the men don't shine as brightly, Nelson is well cast and Paul Schneider ("All the Real Girls") proves a nice addition as the local guy who still has a thing for Amy. Wilson's likable enough crossing his usual low key charm with a little of brother Owen's stoner schtick. Bezucha writes Meredith a way to begin to redeem herself that is touching without being sentimental and his final coda circles back to his beginning with just the proper mix of holiday warmth and melancholia. With a few more polishes, "The Family Stone" may have almost sparkled, but it's been left with too many flaws to quite make the grade.

Robin's Review: DNS

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The Family Stone (2005)

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Family Stone, The (United States, 2005)

It's a tough thing for a dysfunctional-family-at-Christmas movie to avoid doses of melodrama, and it's fair to say that The Family Stone contains its share. But the nice thing about the movie is that it avoids overt manipulation. There's some - it's virtually impossible for a movie of this sort to generate an emotional response without any - but it's kept to a minimum and doesn't come at the viewer like a sledgehammer. Instead of having to sit through a Terms of Endearment scene, we are offered something more tasteful.

Meeting one's prospective in-laws is always a daunting prospect, but combine the following factors - you're going to meet them all at once, you're not comfortable with large family gatherings, and it's Christmas - and you have a recipe for a really bad holiday. For Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker), this is a nightmare come to life. Meredith is a repressed, buttoned down type with impeccable manners. People warm to her like they do to a glacier. She has accompanied her boyfriend, Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney), home for the holidays. In addition to introducing her to his family, he's thinking of proposing marriage.

The Stone family reacts to Meredith's arrival like a pack of wolves, and they pounce with fangs bared. The worst of the lot is Everett's youngest sister, Amy (Rachel McAdams), who has a barbed comment for every occasion. Sybil (Diane Keaton), Everett's mother, isn't much better - she instantly recognizes that Meredith isn't right for her son. Everett's dad, Kelly (Craig T. Nelson); deaf brother, Thad (Tyrone Giordano); and pregnant sister, Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), take a wait-and-see approach. Only Ben (Luke Wilson), the black sheep of the Stone clan, seems willing to cut Meredith a break. After less than a day with the Stones, the frazzled outsider, feeling the pressure, checks out of the house and into a nearby inn. She also calls in reinforcements in the person of her sister, Julie (Claire Danes). What proceeds to complicate matters is that Everett finds himself attracted to Julie, while Ben and Meredith discover a connection when they attempt to fly her "freak flag."

I have seen The Family Stone categorized in some places as a "screwball comedy," but this is an inappropriate label. There are a few mildly comedic moments sprinkled throughout the production, but this belongs in the drama category. Laughter, although it may occur (and hopefully in all the right places), is not the primary goal of writer/director Thomas Bezucha. He wants The Family Stone to touch a deeper chord. For the most part, he succeeds. There's nothing extraordinary or groundbreaking about the film, but it understands what it's doing, and does it effectively. The key for a movie like this is getting the characters to seem more like people than caricatures, and Bezucha acoomplishes that.

The film comes with an epilogue, and it is needed because not all the subplots can be wrapped up in the three-day span that restricts the primary action. This five-minute sequence, which offers closure to almost everything, has an underlying sense of poignancy that the director could have mishandled. The atmosphere is ripe for manipulation of the kind that will ensure there's not a dry eye in the house. But Bezucha is restrained. He's smart, recognizing that we don't need violins to feel the undercurrent.

The talented cast helps. Sarah Jessica Parker, finding that there is life after Sex in the City , has no difficulty with Meredith's arc. Of all the characters in the movie, she undergoes the biggest transformation, and Parker aces it. Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson settle comfortably into the matriarch/patriarch roles, and there is one especially touching scene between the two of them. Luke Wilson brings his special brand of relaxed, "don't worry, be happy" performance to the proceedings. Rachel McAdams, 2005's "it" girl (see also Wedding Crashers and Red Eye ), imparts a dose of charisma. Claire Danes, on the comeback trail, is appealing. And Dermot Mulroney needs little more to get by than his good looks.

It's worth mentioning that this is the best adult holiday film in a while. (Of course, competition has been thin - Christmas with the Kranks , Surviving Christmas , etc.) The box office life of The Family Stone will be short. The movie is so drenched in Christmas spirit that it will seem a little stale once the holidays are past. Even taking this into consideration, it's worth two hours for those who appreciate this kind of workmanlike, low-risk drama.

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Movie review: “the family stone”.

The film opens up with Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) introducing his uptight fiancé- to-be Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) to his family. Everett’s sister Amy (Rachel McAdams), who has met Meredith once, and inconceivably “hates” her, quickly succeeds in poisoning almost the entire family against Meredith before she even walks in the door. Apparently in the Stone world, Meredith’s propensity to talk too much and her nervous habit of clearing her throat is more than enough reason for Everett’s family to treat her like garbage.

Judging by the house these people live in, the Stones are upper-middle class and should not be strangers to tact or etiquette. Yet in this film they absurdly write Meredith off and make her feel like an outsider. The Flintstones couldn’t be more uncouth than these jerks. Meredith herself is not perfect, and may not be right for Everett, as we find out, but her treatment in this film is implausible, especially coming from a family that has embraced an openly gay sibling, and one who is in a committed relationship with a black man.

If you do get forced into seeing this movie you can at least look forward to some interesting, if not awkward, performances from the film’s talented ensemble cast. Sarah Jessica Parker tries to inject some real humor into Meredith, and Luke Wilson’s turn as the least contemptible Stone brother is a highlight. Claire Danes also does well as Meredith’s sister Julie, but ultimately her character in the film serves no purpose other than to provide unneeded closure to one of the film’s many gratuitous love stories.

Despite these standouts, “The Family Stone” ultimately doesn’t know what it wants to be. It yanks at your heartstrings while bashing your funny bone. It’s a film that means well but in the end doesn’t really succeed in anything other than making a supposedly liberal, semi-bohemian family look like a bunch of callous, hypersensitive, and obnoxious ingrates.

2.5 / 5 Stars Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Dermot Mulroney, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson, Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson Director: Thomas Bezucha Reviewed by Andy Kurtz

DVD Review:

Despite the unanticipated amount of negative feedback that the film received during its theatrical run (due to the fact that it was promoted as a family comedy, when it clearly wasn’t), FOX has put a lot of tender, loving care into their single-disc release of “The Family Stone.” Along with two audio commentaries, one good (with director Thomas Bezucha and crew) and the other not so great (with Sarah Jessica Parker and Dermot Mulroney), the DVD also features six deleted scenes, and a handful of other extras including a recipe for Meredith’s strata. The real gems of the disc, though, include a brief Q&A session with the cast (recorded at the SAG Theater), an eighteen-minute making-of featurette, and a rather lengthy gag reel that gives the viewer a pretty good idea of how well the cast worked together.

Reviewed by Jason Zingale

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