The Family Stone is a hilarious story of a quirky New England family, the Stones and their yearly holiday get-together. Everett (Dermot Mulroney), the oldest son brings his uptight and socially inept girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home to meet his liberal and outspoken family in hopes they will accept her. However, it doesn’t go as well as Everett had anticipated and as the comical tale unfolds over the course of three days, secrets will come out; new relationships will be formed and old relationships won’t last.
The parents Sybil (Diane Keaton) and Kelly Stone (Craig T. Nelson) are not impressed by the prominent and shrewd New Yorker their son is about to marry and has no problems welcoming her with hostility and uneasiness.
Rachel McAdams brilliantly plays Amy, the bitchy sister who hates Meredith and tries to turn the family against her while Luke Wilson plays the easy going and mischievous younger brother Ben who is always high.
The other siblings include Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser) and Thad (Ty Giordano) who is both gay and deaf and lives with his black partner Patrick (Brian White).
Although Meredith knows her boyfriend’s family isn’t happy about her being with Everett she keeps trying to fit in. The more she tries to interact with them and join in their conservations the worse she makes the situation.
So her sister Julie (Claire Danes) comes to the rescue which sets off more problems for Meredith because Everett’s family loves her.
The all-star cast works surprisingly well together and each gives an extraordinary and hysterical performance. Writer/director Thomas Bezucha cleverly and somewhat accurately captures a loving but dysfunctional and eccentric family and shows what happens when an outsider wants to come in.
However, while Bezucha successfully interweaves well-acted drama and moments of heartfelt emotional energy into the comedy, he unsuccessfully tries to stack as many issues he can think of into the film. So get ready to see the family attempt to tackle death, homosexuality, disability, disease, adoption and race relations.
Bottom Line: Although it’s no surprise to see who ends up with who and Sarah Jessica Parker’s character is definitely annoying throughout, the film delivers many laugh out loud moments and is worth checking out.
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