SA MOVIE & DVD MAGAZINE

INFORMATION

Director: Thomas Bezucha

Starring: Claire Danes, Tyrone Giordano, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Elizabeth Reaser, Paul Schneider, Brian J. White, Luke Wilson

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
The Stone family unites in common cause when their favourite son brings his uptight girlfriend home for the Christmas holiday, with plans of proposing. Overwhelmed by the hostile reception, she begs her sister to join her for emotional support, triggering further complications.

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REVIEW : LORD OF WAR

The Family Stone (2005)

Judging from the Family Stone DVD cover – with someone flipping you the bird as they say – you'd probably be expecting some kind of cheeky comedy, but the movie is in fact nothing of the sort . . .

Review by : James O'Ehley

Sarah wasn't taking kindly to the "so what are you doing now that
Sex and the City has finished?" line of questioning ...

Instead it is one of those mushy romantic comedies/dramas that make heterosexual men roll their eyes and sigh heavily when their girlfriends rent it.

Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney, heartthrob of Must Love Dogs and The Wedding Date) is bringing his fiancée Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex in the City infamy) home for Christmas. Meeting the in-laws is always a terrifying prospect, but Meredith is a highly strung New York business woman who doesn't gel at all with the more bohemian Stone family – including matriarch Sybil (Diane Keaton) who is dying of cancer.

Soon, Meredith is so overwhelmed by her negative reception that she phones her sister Julie (Claire Danes, Juliet opposite diCaprio's Romeo in Romeo + Juliet) to come on over for emotional support. This results in more complications in true romantic comedy style since Everett develops a crush on Julie while Meredith is finding herself attracted to Ben (Luke Wilson), Everett 's less-than-uptight brother.

If you'd watched a lot of romantic comedies then The Family Stone's outcome is pretty easy to predict. However, Family Stone can never settle on the right tone: is it a romantic comedy or a weepie? As you can imagine having someone under the roof dying of cancer sort of casts a pall over the Christmas cheer and rom com partner swapping. While The Family Stone is a well-acted ensemble piece that allows its cast to stretch out, it is the sort of movie that you'd probably feel better about having skipped it on the big screen and checking it out on DVD, preferably as part of a triple bill along with at least one genuine comedy and one skop-skiet-en-donner fliek – especially if you're a heterosexual male, that is.