THE FAMILY STONE – Diane Keaton, Claire Danes

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 for their annual miserable little Christmas celebration. Something tells me that's not what writer-director Thomas Bezucha had intended.

But considering how obnoxiously and hypocritically p.c. the Stones are, it's no wonder I found Parker's outsider, however reactionary, the only one in the bunch with whom I could actually empathize. 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.

Sarah Jessica Parker's performance, in fact, is the single element in 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 the screenplay.

The other actors — 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. Worst of all is an over-the-top dinner table scene in which Keaton angrily defends her gay son (Ty Giordano) against prissy Parker's remarks on homosexuality. For once, I almost took the side of bigots. (Admittedly, Keaton does have one good moment when, while lying in bed, she shows husband Craig T. Nelson her post-mastectomy physique.)

Compounding matters, the film's unfunny, undramatic moments are underlined by Michael Giacchino's overbearing score, the likes of which makes John Williams' film music seem as subtle as a Mozart sonata.