Film Review: The Family Stone

About the film

The family Stone was released in 2005 by 20th Century Fox and is a comedy/ drama film. It is rated 12 due to mild bad language, sex references and drug references and is 98 minutes long.

Plot

Christmas time is a big thing for the Stone family because they all get together, no matter where they were. This year however, they have a guest. Everett's girlfriend Meredith ventures out of her executive life in New York to spend Christmas with his family. Meredith is quite uptight and conservative which a complete contrast to Everett's family.

Everett's mum Sybil is a bohemian dealing with a fatal illness who doesn't want Everett to give Meredith the family heirloom for an engagement ring. His dad is an architect.

Thad is deaf and gay and has a black partner. He is also an architect.

Ben is a stoner who is very laid back and makes documentaries.

Susannah has one child and is expecting her second.

Amy has met Meredith before, took an instant dislike to her, and makes an effort to make things uneasy for her.

Meredith feels so out of place and unwanted so she invites her sister Julie to come and help her out but things don't really work out the way everyone expected them to.

What I thought

What mainly drew me to this film was the cast. I was having one of my long browses through HMV, saw this on offer for £3, and thought with so many big names, it can't be bad. The family Stone is a lovely Christmas film filled with giggles and feel good moments.

Although I've heard people describe the story boring and uninteresting, I thought it had plenty of warmth and many different little aspects to it. There are some serious parts, a really nice family story of morality with quite a few funny parts.

Even though the cast drew me in, I thought so many big actors might have over powered the story. All of the characters had something different to offer and they all had different personalities. Meredith is supposed to come across as stern and boring but I thought she was really funny at times and Sarah Jessica Parker was great for someone who is so well known for playing Carrie in Sex and the city. I know she was supposed to get more likable as the film went on but I liked to straight away. I thought she was the one character that seemed so real to start with.

Rachel McAdams played a fantastic bitch. I'd seen her before in Mean Girls and wondered if she could pull off the same role as an adult and really impressed me. I guess if I didn't like my sister's boyfriend, I would definitely let him know about it and not act all nicey-nicey around him. Ok, I wouldn't probably be that mean to him but I really understood where she was coming from.

Luke Wilson plays a great stoner. I've seen quite a few comedies with him in before and I thought his role as Ben was quite different. While being a bit silly at times, he still came across as unbelievable lovable. He is charming, selfish and nice all at the same time and where I would normally see this as being sleazy; there was nothing he could do to make me dislike him. I wanted to take him home.

I know the writers tried to include someone for everyone but it just seems like they were trying too hard. Although I liked everyone as individuals, they were just too much to handle all at the same time, which thankfully doesn't happen too much.

What I thought was very original about this film was the fact that there isn't really a good guy and a bad guy. Each character at times is really nice, but then they can also be pretty mean when they don't agree with something or something doesn't go their way. The Stone family are supposed to come across as the bad guys because they are so mean and unwelcoming to Meredith but it's not really their fault that they don't get on with her, it's not as if they have anything in common.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this film. It wasn't the best rom-com I have ever seen but it certainly was entertaining. The story is quite interesting and funny and kept me amused throughout. The cast is impressive and no one really disappointed me acting wise. I'm glad I got this so cheap though because I wouldn't have wanted to pay much more for it.