MID-January '06 Movie Review—The Family Stone Column

The Family Stone

A 20th Century Fox release of a Fox 2000 Pictures presentation of a Michael London production.

Produced by London.
Executive producer, Jennifer Ogden.
Co-producer, Mindy Marin.
Directed, written by Thomas Bezucha.

Julie Morton — Claire Danes
Sybil Stone — Diane Keaton
Amy Stone — Rachel McAdams
Everett Stone — Dermot Mulroney
Kelly Stone — Craig T. Nelson
Meredith Morton — Sarah Jessica Parker
Ben Stone — Luke Wilson
Thad Stone — Ty Giordano
Patrick Thomas — Brian White
Susannah Stone Trousdale — Elizabeth Reaser
Brad Stevenson — Paul Schneider

Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen), Peter James; editors, Christopher Greenbury, Matthew Cassel; music, John Debney; music supervisor, Buck Damon; production designer, Cary White; art director, Peter Grundy; set decorator, Patricia Cuccia; costume designer, Joseph G. Aulisi; sound (Dolby/DTS), Glen Gauthier; supervising sound editor, John A. Larsen; stunt coordinator, Bob Brown; assistant director, Daniel Silverberg; casting, Monica Swann.

Rating: PG-13. Running time: 103 MIN.

Column Rating: Definitely See; keeping in mind this a dramatic comedy, not just a comedy.
With Your Children? Although rated PG-13, there is language, adult subject matter, and depiction of drug use.

The Family Stone was a satisfactory, hell-bent-for-leather portrayal of a 'middle-America' family with a not necessarily usual idiosyncratic dynamic—and there is a sub-story of illness and loss juxtaposed with all the shenanigans, not evident in the trailers. Although overly ambitious, the subplots blend well enough, due to the ensemble–style characterizations, which are surprisingly vigorous given how many children were born to the Stones. Add spouses and significant others we get to know well enough in the little over an hour and-a-half we get to study them, and you will be as surprised as me. Directed and written by Thomas Bezucha, the film gives a quick, but insightful look at a large family so comfortable in its foibles that they do not understand the barrier they represent to an outsider. Especially an outsider who is successful at work, but repeatedly demonstrates an under-developed level of self-confidence, with its associated awkwardness.

The Stones are a strong-willed batch of unique individuals, none alike, who hug and offer loving support as passionately as they toss jibes and below-the-surface angst at each other. They appear comfortable with their own dynamic. It was familiar and consistent. For anyone from a large family, it may feel familiar to and consistent with their own family's transitional years as the kids explored adulthood. Bezucha sets up our visits with the family, and each of them separately, in a rush of helter-skelter exchanges. His message is 'try to keep up, this isn't an exposition, it's a family coming together, so just jump in and pay attention.

The youngest son Thad, (Ty Giordano), is tossed at us first, as he arrives with his significant other, Patrick (Brian White,) hollering as they come into the family home, loaded with packages. It's Christmas, and the Stones apparently gather with their parents for the holiday. Mom is Sybil, (Diane Keaton). She is home, though quietly brooding in front of the partially decorated Christmas tree. She is immediately animated when she hears Thad come in, rushing to meet him wreathed in smiles. She is signing as she speaks, conveying that one of the young people is deaf. One after the other, all the kids, friends, spouses and Dad show up, coalescing as a boisterous pile in the kitchen. Dad is Kelly Stone, (Craig T. Nelson). Youngest sis is Amy (Rachel McAdams), who has a distinct chip on her shoulder. Oldest sis is Suzannah Stone Trousdale, pregnant and must wait a few days for her husband to join them.

The older boys are the high contrast siblings of the sort often found in larger families. The oldest, Everett (Dermott Mulroney), brings his woman he met in Japan and now resides with in Manhattan. Meredith Morton (hysterically portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker), came in the door reticent, desperately holding off the moment she must 'jump in.' Most of the initial fray occurred before middle son arrives, as usual, his worldly ways dictating he'd always be a bit late. Ben (Luke Wilson), appeared to catch up quickly though, watching his family knowingly, bringing a sense of his role in the family as the humorous vibe, relieving tensions as he moves amongst them.

Bezucha deftly melded the look and feel of a close-knit family. He gets in all the how and what such a family would appear to a stranger, dragged into their overwhelming midst. Some might feel right at home. Some might recognize what the whole crowd represents and wish to flee for their lives. And some miserable souls may not recognize any of it, feeling they are suddenly in goo up to their knees. Poor Meredith was that latter type, put off by their cohesion and impermeability, hopelessly outside the unit. The cozy Stone household didn't set her at ease, with its comfortable furniture, well-worn, and all the bric-a-brac and minutiae that looked like clutter and piles of pictures with no context to them. Asking to be excused to freshen up, and gain a safe haven, she commandeered Everett's room (they weren't married, she pointed out to her bemused and then irritated fiancé.) His childhood minutiae and trophies further muddied the water as she attempted to truly see all of the moments that cause adults to nurture that special bond of family.

This same bond so threatening to her is suffering the inevitable shifts of a family with grown children. It has deepened until they don't know how they appear in the morning in the kitchen, fumbling for coffee, some cheerful, some not, making it obvious which fancy sunrises and which prefer sunsets. Longstanding feuds and personality differences are muffled by that same comfortable blanket of familial camaraderie which might border on dysfunction. Family is like your favorite pair of slippers, comfortable except for a few little lumps under the big toe. Holidays are a particularly difficult time as a family ages, and the deep seated differences often become unmanageable, the comfortable blanket worn thin, fraying at the edges.

Bezucha captured all of this, and communicated all the bad news as well, weaving the start of a good film. The story overreached itself as it progressed. The script attempted to cover a lot of interaction territory: terminal illness, hearing-challenged children, homosexuality and childrearing, the ethnically mixed couple, bringing home the stranger, low self-esteem, urban vs. suburban, and—oh yeah—manageable drug use.

Mulroney's Everett is in the throes of an early mid-life crisis. McAdams stomped belligerently around as Amy, whose sensations of revulsion, inappropriate as it would seem, wished to right wrongs by being totally obnoxious to Parker's Meredith, the innocent catalyst. The family drama unfolds, everyone's seemingly intractable natures, successfully unraveling Meredith's minimal composure. And all foreshadowed by Keaton's Sybil, the apparently flower-child parent with significantly daunting, sarcasm and motherly love doled out in equal measures. Nelson carried off the fatherly role of Kelly with his usual panache. Kelly, Ben and Suzannah, outnumbered and outgunned keep a low profile. Kelly finally notices his family didn't 'clean up' well for strangers, coming off as downright lacking in breeding. The Stone family, by degrees, began to see themselves through the stranger's eyes, especially as other strangers are added to the mix.

All of this can feel cliché or trite, but in fact people that want the holidays to be like their memories, will accept a mediocre resemblance to them and avoid confronting issues, as they do in relationships in general. The Stone Family was no different. This movie isn't so much formulaic as it is a reflection of life in all its trivial ideals and moments, events and joinings, no matter the potential for the disastrous, if it fulfills that void, that need to comply with deep emotional urges for perfection, true love, white Christmas memories and the overall pursuit of the American dream, the snowy Kinkaide home with the Rockwell children playing in the yard, all of the quirky, uncontrollable drives that the holidays inspire in the best of people, the stoutest of families, the most stable of individuals.

Bezocha simply ran out of time to get it all in without taking shortcuts. Resolutions are to pat, the ending shallow. The pace of the last half of the story rocketed around, tying up loose ends as quickly as possible. All in all, though too ambitious for the dictated less than two hour Hollywood comedy, the early story allowed me to be forgiving, and left me satisfied with the effort.

A cautionary note: if you have terminal illness looming in your life, or that of a loved one, or if you have experienced loss that way during the holidays, this film may not be your cup of cocoa version of a holiday movie.

_{Photos copyright 20th Century Fox.}