THE FAMILY STONE by Thomas Bezucha
December 16th, 2005 by Andre Soares
The Family Stone (2005) 
Direction and screenplay: Thomas Bezucha. Cast: Claire Danes, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser, Tyrone Giordano, Paul Schneider
HAVE YOURSELF A MISERABLE LITTLE CHRISTMAS
The Family Stone is the sort of fairy tale that works in reverse. Watching the film, I was actively rooting for the uptight, sexless, anal-retentive (surely a Republican Committee member) fiancée played by Sarah Jessica Parker, who is brought into the home of the oh-so-liberal Stone family. Something tells me that’s not what the filmmakers intended. However, considering how obnoxiously — and hypocritically — p.c. the Stones are, I found Parker’s outsider someone I could feel for. She is mistreated by the Stones even before they get to know her — and, poor thing, to walk around as if she’s perennially constipated must be quite uncomfortable.
Parker’s work, in fact, is the only element in Thomas Bezucha’s The Family Stone that offers a semblance of truth. Her comic timing may come and go, but she does manage to create a passably real person out of the cardboard character found in Bezucha’s screenplay. The other performers — the cast includes Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Luke Wilson, Dermot Mulroney, Claire Danes, and Rachel McAdams — either have no role to speak of, or they fall into the trap of cheesy comedy and even cheesier melodrama.
Compounding matters, the film’s unfunny, undramatic moments are underlined by Michael Giacchino’s syrupy score, the likes of which makes John Williams’s film music seem as heavenly as a Mozart sonata.
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