The Family Stone

The Family Stone

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Thomas Bezucha
Produced by Michael London
Written by Thomas Bezucha
Starring Claire Danes
Diane Keaton
Rachel McAdams
Dermot Mulroney
Craig T. Nelson
Sarah Jessica Parker
Luke Wilson
Music by Michael Giacchino
Cinematography Jonathan Brown
Edited by Jeffrey Ford
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • December 16, 2005 (2005-12-16)
Running time
104 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $18 million[1]
Box office $92,283,851[1]

The Family Stone is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Thomas Bezucha. Produced by Michael London and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it stars an ensemble cast, including Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, and Tyrone Giordano.

The plot follows the Christmas holiday misadventures of the Stone family in a small New England town when the eldest son, played by Mulroney, brings his uptight girlfriend (played by Parker) home with the intention of proposing to her with a cherished heirloom ring. Overwhelmed by the hostile reception, she begs her sister to join her for emotional support, triggering further complications.

The Family Stone was released in North America on November 26, 2005 and was a moderate critical and commercial success, with a worldwide gross of over US$92.2 million. While Parker was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance, Keaton, Nelson and McAdams garnered a Satellite Award nomination each. In addition, McAdams was awarded a Teen Choice Award the following year.

Plot

Set in the fictional town of Thayer, Massachusetts, the story focuses on Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker), a successful Manhattan executive whose uptight, conservative demeanor is a sharp contrast to that of her boyfriend Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) and his liberal and rambunctious family.

Meredith, feeling very much an outsider during the Christmas holidays with Everett's family, opts to stay at the local inn instead of with the family and asks her sister Julie (Claire Danes) to join her for support. Everett finds himself attracted to the more outgoing Julie. Meredith desperately tries to fit in, but her strained attempt to play charades and a clumsy effort to engage the family in a dinner table discussion about nature versus nurture and sexual orientation prove to be disastrous and their father, Kelly Stone (Craig T. Nelson), the most understanding of the family, blows up at her. Distraught, Meredith attempts to drive off but crashes the car, and Everett's brother Ben (Luke Wilson) comes to comfort her. The two end up at a local bar where, after several drinks, Meredith begins to enjoy herself. She invites Amy's high school flame and local paramedic, Brad Stevenson (Paul Schneider), to the Stones' for Christmas breakfast. The following morning, when she awakens in Ben's bed, she incorrectly assumes their night of revelry ended with the two having sex together.

Christmas proves to be a day of accusations, recriminations, self-discoveries, and attempts to mend fences. Sybil (Diane Keaton), who originally refused Everett's request for his grandmother's ring, reconsiders her position and offers it to him; but, by now, his feelings for Meredith have shifted to her sister. In a moment of emotional confusion  or clarity  he asks Julie to try on the ring, and it gets stuck. When Julie and Meredith lock themselves in the bathroom to get the ring off, they assume Everett is about to propose to Meredith. The family exchanges gifts; and Meredith, oblivious to Sybil's failing health, presents each with a framed enlarged photograph of Sybil taken when she was pregnant with Amy. Everyone is touched by her gesture, and Meredith relaxes slightly; but, when Everett asks to talk to her, she demurs again and again until she blurts out that she will not marry him. He counters that he didn't plan to ask her. Meredith breaks down in front of the family. All the personality conflicts come to a head, and everyone begins the process of healing.

One year later, the family reunites at the Stone house. Meredith and Ben are a couple, as are Everett and Julie and Amy and Brad. Everett's brother Thad and his partner Patrick have adopted a baby boy named Gus, and Everett's other sister, Susannah, has had her baby. It is hinted that Sybil died. She is referenced as the family gathers with family Christmas ornaments around the tree. The framed photograph of Sybil is on the wall next to the tree and Amy is wearing her ring.

Cast

The Stones
Others

Soundtrack

Songs heard on the film's soundtrack include:

Critical reception

The film received generally mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 52% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 151 reviews, with a rating average of 5.9 out of 10.[3] The critical consensus is: "This family holiday dramedy features fine performances but awkward shifts of tone."[3] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 56 based on 35 reviews.[4]

On the negative side, Manohla Dargis opened her damning review in the New York Times, with "All happy families resemble one another, Tolstoy famously wrote, and each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, but Tolstoy didn't know the Stones, who are happy in a Hollywood kind of way and unhappy in a self-help kind of way. This tribe of ravenous cannibals bares its excellent teeth at anyone who doesn't accommodate the family's preening self-regard."[5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four. He stated the film "is silly at times, leaning toward the screwball tradition of everyone racing around the house at the same time in a panic fueled by serial misunderstandings [but] there is also a thoughtful side, involving the long and loving marriage of Sybil and Kelly." He further added, "The Family Stone sorts out its characters admirably, depends on typecasting to help establish its characters more quickly, and finds a winding path between happy and sad secrets to that moment when we realize that the Family Stone will always think of this fateful Christmas with a smile, and a tear."[6]

In Variety, Justin Chang called the film "a smart, tart but mildly undercooked Christmas pudding" and added the "lovingly mounted ensembler has many heartfelt moments and a keen ear for the rhythms of domestic life, which make the neatly gift-wrapped outcome somewhat disappointing ... Bezucha tosses the viewer into every conversation headfirst, deploying a rough, at times disorienting visual style that works in rhythm with the layers of overlapping dialogue to deliver a pleasingly antic, semi-improvisational feel ... but while individual scenes have an authentically off-the-cuff feel, the narrative structure as a whole feels a tad schematic."[7]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said, "A contemporary version of the traditional screwball romantic comedy, The Family Stone is a film that's at times as ragged and shaggy as its family unit. But as written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, its offbeat mixture of highly choreographed comic crises and the occasional bite of reality make for an unexpectedly enticing blend." In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers rated the film three out of a possible four stars and added, "It's a comedy with a dash of tragedy  the kind of thing that usually makes me puke. But I fell for this one ... Writer-director Thomas Bezucha lays it on thick, but he knows the mad-dog anarchy of family life and gives the laughs a sharp comic edge."

Release

Commercial performance

The film opened at #3 at the U.S. box office, raking in $12,521,027 USD during its opening weekend. After spending 15 weeks in theatres, The Family Stone earned $60,062,868 in the US and $32,220,983 in foreign markets, bringing its worldwide total to $92,283,851.[1]

Accolades

Award Category Nominee(s) Result
American Cinema Editors Best Edited Feature Film – Comedy or Musical Jeffrey Ford Nominated
Casting Society of America[8] Best Feature Film Casting - Comedy Mindy Marin Nominated
GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Film - Wide Release Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Sarah Jessica Parker Nominated
Hollywood Film Festival[9] Breakthrough Actress of the Year
(also for Red Eye and Wedding Crashers)
Rachel McAdams Won
New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress Diane Keaton Nominated
Satellite Awards Best Supporting Actor - Musical or Comedy Craig T. Nelson Nominated
Best Supporting Actress – Musical or Comedy Diane Keaton Nominated
Rachel McAdams Nominated
Teen Choice Awards[10] Choice Movie: Actress Comedy
(also for Wedding Crashers)
Won

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Family Stone (2005). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "The Family Stone Production Notes" (PDF). HollywoodJesus.com. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
  3. 1 2 The Family Stone Movie Reviews, Pictures. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
  4. "The Family Stone: Reviews (2005)". Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  5. Dargis, Manohla (16 December 2005). "Time to Drop the Cellphone and Pick Up a Casserole". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  6. Ebert, Roger (2005-12-16). "The Family Stone : Reviews". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
  7. Change, Justin (2005-12-12). "Review of The Family Stone (2005)". Variety. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
  8. "Artios Awards". Casting Society of America. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  9. "HOLLYWOOD HALL OF FAME AWARDS™ 2005 inductees". Hollywood Film Festival. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  10. Moss, Corey (August 21, 2006). "Britney Introduces K-Fed, Nick Lachey Scores 'Awkward' Award At Teen Choice 2006". MTV. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
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