The Family Stone (Widescreen Edition)

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Actor(s):

Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams

Director(s):

Thomas Bezucha

Label: 20th Century Fox
Publisher(s):

20th Century Fox

Studio: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Binding: DVD
Brand: Family
MPN: FOXD2233406D
Format(s): AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $7.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Editorial Reviews

Description

Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, and Rachel McAdams lead an all-star cast in The Family Stone. Join the eccentric Stone family for a holiday gathering filled with unexpected surprises. Before the festivities are over, love affairs will unravel, new ones will form, outrageous secrets will be revealed and the family will come together like never before.

Amazon.com

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

Customer Reviews

Builds up to being a touching movie about family

Ten minutes into the movie "the Family Stone" I was regretting my choice of the movie. Predictable to the extreme it seemed to have echoes in myriad family movies of recent years : Dan in Real life, The Wedding date and what have you. The family itself was not terribly likeable, the heroine was irritatingly self concious and the hero wasn't doing much to charm the audience.
BUT to enjoy this mtovie you need to be patient. This is NOT a romance! The fact that it starts out with SJ Parker visiting Mulroney's family over the holidays has little to do with their romance and whole lot to do with the undercurrets of family secrets and relationships. the characters do find love by the end and loss as well. Diane Keaton is wonderful as usual. The problem, I felt, was that there wasn't one character or couple to focus the audience's hopes on. Mulroney does an excellent job as the quiet elder son trying to make peace between his family and his girlfriend, Parker is overwrought for most of the movie and Luke Wilson is Luke Wilson. The finest part of the movie is probably in its last half hour and is worth waiting for.

PREDICTABLE AND DISMAL

Where was Crow and Tom Servo from "Mystery Science Theater 3000" when this bomb came out? This movie is right up there with "Manos and the Hands of Fate" and "Swamp Women"!! What should have been a moving story of family facing a tragedy on what would be their last Christmas together ended up to be a mish-mash of neurotic family members with absolutely no chemistry, focusing on trivial and selfish matters. The film alludes briefly to Diane Keaton's terminal condition and then flicked it off like a fly on the wall. We got none of the pathos and sympathy which a condition of this magnatude demands. I'm a big fan of Sarah Jessica Parker but her character was shrewish and vapid, lacking depth (and a good make-up artist!) Her contract rider should demand that her films be in letter-box or widescreen format - the vertical frame stretch only made her look like a whippet in drag!

I have nothing good to say about the other actors because their roles were not only forgettable, but painful to watch. Only Craig T. Nelson stands out as a man who is dropped in the middle of this madhouse. He did exhibit some human characteristics while trying to corral what appears to be a foster family without any connection to each other by either nature or nurture! The writer attempted to appeal to every demographic by building a fake family of professionals, bums, blacks, gays, mommies, kiddies, terminal matriarch, and confused patriarch. DE EXPERIMENT FAIL'T, DOKTORR!! And the "Gag Reel" was so painful that it made me...well, GAG! This director must have been "The Godfather" to make this many good actors accept an offer they SHOULD have refused!

The Story is Predictable

This movie is almost painful to watch. It is another movie portrayed as a comedy in the trailers, but it turns out that if you've seen a trailer, you've seen every funny part already. It's a drama and not a very good one at that. The writing fails a potentially good story line. The viewer isn't given enough time to believe that Everett could actually fall out of love with the main character and in love with her sister based on knowing her for half a day. Bad writing!

Much enjoyed

This dvd I loved from the first time I saw it! Everything about the family, and hardships really touched me. I tried to buy this movie from a buyer prior to this seller. When I received it in the mail it skipped and would not allow me to access any features at all. I quickly went online and found the exact movie I wanted and a friendly and helpful seller who was honest and willing to send it out right away. Even though I have only had it for about a month I have watched it several times.

Less than one star PLEASE!

My wife and I left this movie before it finished. It was the most hate filled uncomfortable movie I've been to, EVER. How in the world anyone can like this is beyond me. If my family was like this one I would never bring a future bride to meet them. I love movies (have over 1000 DVDs) but I want my money back from the people that made this floater. We should file a law suit for them even using the term movie in conjuction with this thing.

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