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Family Stone, The [2005]


RRP: £15.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

For anyone who views holiday gatherings with equal parts joy and dread, The Family Stone offers plenty of comedy to identify with. Writer-director Thomas Bezucha's slapstick premise begins when Everett (Dermot Mulroney) brings his fiancé Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home to meet his family for Christmas. It's an instant disaster when parents Sybil (Diane Keaton) and Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) agree with their gay, deaf son Thad (Ty Giordano, who is actually hearing impaired), pot-smoking son Ben (Luke Wilson) and daughters Amy (Rachel McAdams) and Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser) that Meredith is way too uptight to be welcomed into their family. Meredith recruits her sister Julie (Claire Danes) to help her thaw the Stone family cold front, and after building a solid emotional foundation for his holiday comedy, Bezucha starts to stack the deck with plot developments that, while heartwarming, border on the absurd. You either go with the movie's flow or you don't, and with this appealing cast (featuring some really nice work by Keaton, Nelson, Parker and Danes) it's easy to forgive Bezucha's unlikely blend of yuletide cheer, petty animosities, and romantic tables turned in the blink of an eye. Toss in a case of terminal illness and you've got a sad-happy tearjerker that works in spite of itself. If you don't recognize at least part of your own holiday clan in The Family Stone, you probably haven't been paying attention. --Jeff Shannon


A different kind of Xmas Family gathering
Review date: 2008-08-04 Rating: 8 out of 10


What happens when the son brings home for X-mas a girl he wants to marry and the family thinks her utterly unsuitable for him and the family? Well this movie answers your question.

Legendary and Oscar winning Diane Keaton as Sybil Stone is the outspoken matriarch, wo survived a bout of breast cancer and has recently fallen ill again, keeps the family together and presides over it.

Sarah Jessica Parker as Meredith Morton is the stiff businesswoman and control-freak girlfriend with a throat-clearing tick who annoys the members of the Stone family. Sarah Jessica Parker may have risen to stardom as one Carrie Bradshaw in the award-winning Sex and the City, but the actress proves her versatility as an unsympathetic character in this movie.

As usual during a Family X-mas a lot of all year hidden family trouble comes up and is exposed. Partly it is quite funny, partly annoying and partly over-done: does the gay son have to cover as well the handicaped (deaf) and the radicial bit (partner is a black American)?

But still it is entertaining and funny and emotional. I like the second Xmas reunioon after Mother Stone has passed away. The photograph showing Sybil Stone pregnant with her baby-daughter Amy, which Meredith gives to everyone as a Christmas present, is an original photograph of Diane Keaton and is very very very nice feature of this movie.

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Reviews


Enjoyable chick-flick with rather predictable ending
Review date: 2008-01-03 Rating: 8 out of 10

My title kinda sums up my thoughts about this film. I somehow missed it on cinema release and watched it with a friend, under the influence of a lot of G&T on New Year's Eve. The combination of G&T and celebration might have caused me to judge the film rather generously, but I shall watch it again while sober and see whether that's fair or not.
I can understand the criticisms; as soon as Clare Danes appears as the freewheeling, glamorous, blonde (for goodness sake!) sister, you just know that there's going to be a merry-go-round of partner swapping. And that bit did not ring true - having made such an a*se of herself in front of the entire family, how could Meredith then become a welcomed member of that family?!? And how could she simply swap affections like that and then spend the rest of her life watching her sister being married to the man she'd wanted to marry?!?
Ah well, as my friend kept saying, 'it's only a film' and it is 'only a film'; just a light piece of entertainment, after all.
To those who hated it, try again with a double G&T (oh and another or three) and you might just change your mind ...


A big disappointment
Review date: 2007-11-22 Rating: 6 out of 10

When I saw the trailer of this movie in the cinemas, I couldn't wait Christmas to see the movie, but when it came out and I saw it, I was disappointed.

First of all the casting. I got my expectations so high seeing how many famous and great actors would be in this movie, but then some just weren't right for their roles (SJP and Diane Keaton) and others who were great just didn't have enough screentime for them (Rachel McAdams, Claire Danes, Luke Wilson).

I was expecting a warm family Christmas movie, and instead got a dull and very broing and not at all funny movie. The film just dragged on and on and the unbelievable turn of events (at the end who ends up with who) became predictable and yet makes no sense at all: SJP ends up with her fiance's brother (with whom she has NOTHING in common) and her fiance ends up with SJP's sister, for whom you've been rooting ever since Claire Danes appeared on screen. And noone was surrised or had a say about it! at all!

SJP I think she didn't do a good job here. They have no chemistry with his "fiance" so ehn they split you don't care at all (you are even wishing for their split to happen as soon as possible). SJP didn't give any depth or realism to her character, making her a one dimensional and completely absurd woman, for whom you can't feel any sympathy.

Maybe the problem was that there were so many characters they simply couldn't give them each enough time, but the problem is, we just ended up having just a glimpse into tehir life, which is surely not enough to get involved in the film or their lives and care for them.

I thought the film lacking in the humour department also, especially after seeing that it treated cancer and death, which would be fine for a drama but to pass it up as a comedy..

Claire Danes s beautiful and both the audience and the family fall for her in an eyeblink and you forget all about the MAIN character, played by SJP. Danes' portrayal is funny and charming, you don't wonder why the 'hero' falls for her.

Another high of the film is Rachel McAdams. She is simply brillianta nd wonderful! Her playing simply overshadowed SJP's affected and rigid portrayal as well as Diane Keaton's. She did a marvelous job and she was almost the only thing in the whole movie who made me smile and even laugh!

Luke Wilson was the other one who made me smile and laugh. The siblings' funny moments and teasing were the highlight of the film!

What else to say? It was a big disappointment, maybe I'll watch it once more ina few years, but won't even think about buying it on DVD!

A near perfect film
Review date: 2007-09-22 Rating: 10 out of 10

this film is beautiful in so many ways, beatifully acted , great script, funny touching, moving, real, one of those films that stands high above others in in excellence, very worth seeing!!!!

A real Christmas Classic!
Review date: 2007-09-20 Rating: 10 out of 10

If you really like a Christmas film - one thats funny, light hearted, a real Christmas Classic then "The Family stone" is something you really need on your shelf!!! Its completley awesome and seriosuly deserves 5 stars!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Sarah Jessica Parker
Claire Danes
Paul Schneider
Rachel McAdams
Diane Keaton

Creators:
Sarah Jessica Parker (Primary Contributor)
Paul Schneider (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036025683
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL,
Release date: 2006-04-17
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 99 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: English (Original Language)

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