Eventhough I already heard that the trailers didn't really portray an accurate picture of the movie, I was still pleasantly surprised by it. One of the best ensemble of actors ever assembled. A good mix of humor, pathos, and romance. Craig T. Nelson delivers a quiet, yet effective performance and deserves more Supporting Actor accolades. Nice to see Paul Schneider in this movie as well.

A-

I was very impressed by this film. It is filled with great performances from all of the cast, and I have never seen such a great ensemble cast. The dinner table scene was really effective, and I loved the way it was executed. Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Sarah Jessica Parker were all great in their roles. Craig T. Nelson also did a fabulous job, and I really did like Claire Danes in this. This film blends comedy with drama, and it does it so brilliantly. Often times this formula doesn't work, but it works really well for this film. The gay couple in the film were really awesome, and I loved the whole sign language concept. It was really sweet and cute. By time the ending rolled around it brought a tear to my eye. It was such a bittersweet ending, and I absolutely loved it. I didn't expect it to be so amazing, but The Family Stone is really one of my favorite films of the year hands down.

A

C+. I feel like this movie didn't quite work for me, very uneven. There are some good realistic portrayals about uncomfortable situations and awkwardness, but the tone of the movie falters as they mix in this stuff with slapstick and had to tidy everything up nicely by unconvincingly pairing characters up at the end with weak build-up development. Sarah Jessica Parker plays a really nasty character who never gets that redemption scene where you dislike her less, but Craig T. Nelson and Diane Keaton were very good.

Think that happens about 3 times.

- at the bar
- then with the Xmas present - the pictures
- and finally with Diane Keaton's words in the kitchen > we are the same as you but we just have each other

Did you really think Parker's character was really nasty? I thought she was polite to the Stones but her uber-uptight, type A personality made her rather unlikeable in the beginning.

If any character in the film was nasty, it was Rachel McAdams' Amy.
I

You are correct for the viewer, as i answered above in the scenes from the movie where the characters saw the changes > maybe a transformation.

The Family Stone

I totally expected a different movie, like more comedic.
its fantastic anyways, those awkward moment really made me feel uncomfortable and sorry for Parker’s character, I honestly wanted to shoot the whole family. It’s a really touching movie, especially at the end.

The cast is phenomenal and the acting was amazing, the story was beautiful, the dialogue was great and very realistic

A-

I think it's fair to say both were nasty. First time around, I thought Amy was being the bitch by rejecting Meredith for way too long. I was quite unhappy with the whole family. Second time around, Meredith seemed the more annoying one with her constant yapping and detachment from Everett- it seemed apparent that the couple really lacked chemistry and *weren't* made for eachother. Both times, I got a different reaction, and I quite like the fact that Family Stone manages to provoke different reactions on review.

I'd like to revise my grade to a B+; as much as I enjoy the picture it can be a bit too disjointed and even awkward. The transitions didn't always work and it just doesn't seem to succeed in evoking that "A" quality of filmmaking.

I was not impressed at all. This differs from Stepmom only in that the dialogue is better, and that it better manages to pass off as less conventional than it really is. The idea that a mother's death would be exploited in order to arouse the audience's sympathy was sickening in Stepmom, and it is sickening here.

Sarah Jessica Parker's character, it should be noted, is very often in the right. They way they treat her is obscene. I don't understand why anyone would be sympathetic towards this family. Is it because they seem to be so accepting, what with having a son who, get this, is 1) deaf, 2) gay, and-because he needs to be shown to be as much in a minority as possible so that the family in embracing him appears to be even more accepting and tolerant- 3) is in an interracial relationship? If that is so, then the dinner table scene clearly shows that the way they've gone about it has not been all that great: if the way to react to SJP's comments is to dismiss them and her from the table, it seems the solution they offer up for their son's situation is to keep shielding him from reality. What exactly is the point of that? Not only is it not possible, it's counterproductive. I'm not sure what it takes for people to grow sick of these films that keep exploiting minorities for the sake of, or so it is thought, their advancement (by showing them as 'normal people'). You want to show those gay guys as 'normal people'? Then how about making a film without a bloody dinner table scene where they are put right into the centre of discussion and where their sexual orientation is made an issue? I don't know which is sicker- the fact that this keeps happening, or the fact that morons in the audience keeping gulping it up. Blind bleeping sheep.

Oh, and btw, this too has been done before, in Home for the Holidays, directed by Jodie Foster, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Hollie Hunter. Which brings me to the worst aspect of the film: its conventionality. Has anyone else seen a bus scene before were it seems at first that the girl will not stay, and then just when we expect her to drive away, the bus stops, and she hops out, and the music becomes louder and sappier, and they run to each other and hug? YES, of course you have seen this before. And have you seen a film before where, in order to find a way out of a knot in the plot, a character, like say, the woman's sister, is introduced midway through the film in order to give the man a love interest he can substitute for that sister, who incidentally hooks up with the man's brother? Nevermind that this idiot somehow mysteriously has not met that sister of his love interest and, upon meeting her, suddenly falls head over heels. Of course, a nice conversation about a man building a pole in Alaska is bound to pass for 'bonding and getting to know each other'.


The only consolation for me was that I knew at the end, in the last scene, that the mother was dead. Good riddance. May the rest of them follow soon thereafter.


D

A lot of McAdams' films are very overrated. She is good, but the films are easily disposable, except Mean Girls.

HOT CHICK C+
MEAN GIRLS A+
NOTEBOOK B-
WEDDING CRASHERS B-
RED EYE B-
THE FAMILY STONE B-.

The Hot Chick - 8/10 (A-)
Mean Girls - 10/10 (A+)
The Notebook - 9/10 (A-)
Wedding Crashers - 8/10 (B+)
Red Eye - 10/10 (A+)
The Family Stone - 9/10 (A)

I obviously don't agree

Hot Chick - fluffy and stupid. Rachel was good.
Mean Girls - Best high school type film. Ever. Rachel the best.
Notebook - cliched love story. McAdams is good.
Wedding Crashers - seriously horrendous last 30 minutes. However, Rachel (and Isla Fisher) we're quite good.
Red Eye - superficial thriller. However, Rachel is very good.
Family Stone - McAdams is good. But Parker is better.

I'm surprised. Big Time. A-

Anyway, any kind of B grade isn't bad

It was a decent flick with some terrific performances. Didn't love it, but I didn't expect to, really. Rachel McAdams and Diane Keaton are excellent. Sarah Jessica Parker is not.

B-

Great performances, some great moments. Some great ideas.




But reallly really uneven and the movie does a pretty poor at going back and forth between drama and comedy.

oh and the two main romance stories didn't work at all for me. i would have instead liked to know more about amy's character, for example. and yeah at times it seemed like it was exploiting quite a few things which is probably my biggest problem with the movie.

Still, it's a hard film to dislike...but it could have been much better.


B-

I'm floored. I really am. This film, which I passed off as another generic holiday comedy romance film, turned out to be a gem.

In many ways the film was generic and the typical silly romance angle. The whole thing with Meredith and Everett and Meredith's sister was that angle, but it found that it worked because it intertwined nicely into the whole story. I felt like the film balanced the real and the intended comedy fairly well. It wasn't perfect, but there was a lot of good in the film that I really enjoyed.

The Christmas Eve dinner scene was absolutely phenomenal. The writing for Sarah Jessica Parker's character was extremely well done in this scene, allowing for a great buildup. The final straw that caused Keaton and Nielson (mother and father) to break was really brought upon with perfect timing, and when the mother spoke (sign languaged) to her son after, it really put the icing on the cake. And there was a real homosexual relationship and real gay characters that weren't stereotypes! Unbelieveable. Instead being the but of the joke, they were the core of a real issue addressed by the film.

All in all, it was funny, emotional, silly, makes you laugh and maybe even cry, and yet it is all tied together in a nice little package. A very enjoyable film, with really only one stand out slow part (when Everett and Meredith's sister are out walking). Not a perfect film, but brings something very new and respectable to the genre, and has some really good scenes within it all. It's hard not to appreciate the film for what it does, and I think one word to describe this would be refreshingly different and unique. Okay that is more than one word. But what I'm trying to say is that even if there is the usual romantic comedy stuff in this film, it's far from being the usual completely bland romantic comedy. It brings a lot more to the table, and it really surprised me. A valiant effort. I can't give this anything less than a B+, because a B or below is generally regarded as average territory, and this is definately above average.

B+

Oh, and boy was the marketing REALLY trying to cover up the more dramatic, intelligent part of this film! I remember back during Christmas holidays. The marketing tried to dumb it down and make it look like the typical romantic comedy. I remember being surprised back then to see the Rotten Tomatoes rating rather high (for a romantic comedy). Now I know why. A very good film.

PEACE, Mike.

The only big thing i enjoyed about the film is SJP's performance.

BJs Grade:

B+

fun film, enjoyable but i dont think its on I would watch again.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Like most others, I thought the marketing was terrible. I was expecting a lot more comedy, but I'm kinda glad with the way it was. Even though I do not like SJP, the scene in the bar is priceless. McAdams is just brilliant, and even moreso are Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson. My favorite scene, though, is the Christmas Eve Dinner one. Wonderful on all accounts.

A-

As much as the film got to me in the end, it was in spite of a surprisingly weak script with awkward dialogue that at times seemed to be striving for comedy but never really succeeded. Not to mention characters falling in love with each other after a night of drunkenness or nice conversation.

And really, with whom were we supposed to be sympathizing throughout the whole thing? Sarah Jessica Parker, the odd, slightly obnoxious flake? Or the family, who never really even gives her a chance? Seemed like I was supposed to be laughing at Meredith at times, but I just felt kind of annoyed by the family.

I did like the actors, though. Diane Keaton, really great here.

B/B-

[font=Verdana]Good movie but it is uneven between the comedy and heavy-handed drama. Still enjoyed it overall for the ensemble cast. [/font]

B+

I was expecting alot more than what I got...

Typical romantic dramedy... Though good acting

So..

8.1/10 B-

I guess I was pleasantly surprised as well.

Sarah Jessica Parker plays Meredith -- an up-tight, socially awkward business woman -- who is acquainted to a family of judgmental liberals. The outcome is less than pleasant, with the relationship between the family members and Meredith falling victim to a series of misunderstandings and negative self-fulfilling prophecies. I felt that Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams were terrific, and SJP was underrated. The movie often suffers from a certain in-authenticity, but it definitely doesn't misuse its actors....which many ensemble movies tend to do.

B