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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | The Stone family unites in common cause when their favorite 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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| | Product Details | | Actors: | Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams | | Director: | Thomas Bezucha | | Format: | AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language: | English | | Subtitle: | English, Spanish | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Studio: | 20th Century Fox | | Run Time: | 103 minutes | | DVD Release Date: | May 02, 2006 | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 289 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 289 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent and Real! Aug 29, 2006
By Never Lander
OK, this film was a bit misleading in its promotion. This film is NOT a comedy. It has comedic elements but the film is a drama. The film is perfect in its execution. It is far from the cheesy Christmas films of old. It harkens back to films like "Home for the Holidays" with Holly Hunter (a classic in its own right for both Hunter and Robert Downey Jr's performances). The familial angst, the liberal meeting the conservative, the desire for love, family protecting family, it's all here. Sarah Jessica Parker shines in a very different role for her. You feel her painful shyness at dinner when she is so misunderstood in her intentions that she ends up in the car crying.
Not all aspects of the film are to be applauded but the underlying story of the "family stone" which could be the ring requested from the matriarch of the family, the last name of the family of course or the matriarch herself are amazing. Very touching moment at the end, if a bit unrealistic, where they all focus on the picture given as a gift of a pregnant Diane Keaton.
Rachel McAdams is also a shining part of this truly ensemble performance. She plays the little sister with tenacity and twisted pleasure but hides a softer side under sarcasm. She is the perfect foil to Sarah Jessica Parker and I love the humor, heart and love shown throughout this wonderful film.
34 of 40 found the following review helpful:
 Better than the average genre entry Jul 23, 2006
By Barbara L. Pinzka
"Book Friend"
This sort of movie has been done to death, one would think - look at names that are listed in preceding reviews - and while Family Stone fails to provide an earthshattering new insight into the set piece, I think it's a cut above average.
For one thing, the family itself is only slightly disfunctional in its relationships among one another, a distinct relief. For example, the gay son is loved and accepted, as is his partner. There are hints that the mother may have been too clinging but, all in all, the now-adult children of Mr. and Mrs. Stone, magnificently portrayed by Diane Keaton, seem to be handling their lives with aplomb and success.
The Family Stone rolls out its disfunction when a newcomer attempts to join the family. The catalyst for this family gathering is Christmas, probably the worst of holidays for families in general because Chritmas is also the annual festival of dashed expectations, at first material and quickly psychological. A scene late in the movie, when Parker's character distributes presents, demonstrates this motif beautifully.
Our first hint that things will go badly is a scene where some members of the family mock the inniment-fiancee of the eldest son before she has even arrived with the son for a first-time visit. Then you notice that the husband of the only other child (of five) who is married has delayed his arrival until Christmas Day. Hmmmm...what does he know?
And badly things do go, usually in an over-the-top and frantic way saved only by the extraordinary acting skill and comfortable (or appropriately uncomfortable) ensemble work of the excellent cast (besides Keaton, there's Craig T. Nelson, Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Sarah Jessica Parker). These people take nastiness to new heights and I believe if all of us hadn't been through something similar at some point in our lives we'd insist it was unrealistic. C'mon...think a little harder, about what happened when Aunt Sally got tipsy last Thanksgiving and decided to tell your Dad what it was like being the younger, "dumber" one, all those years ago?
Parker also is particularly good, portraying a buttoned-down (but fashionable) Wall-Street yuppie, at least 150-degrees different from her flighty role and Sex and the City.
I enjoyed Family Stone more than I expected to, and it made me think about how families work (and don't work), too. A few of the plot endings at the end really do push credibility too far, but everything is not wrapped up in a ball of cotton candy, just like real life.
21 of 26 found the following review helpful:
One of the best movies I've seen in a while Apr 08, 2006
By LKJones
"LKJones"
I was compelled to write a review for this item after reading some of the very misleading reviews below. While this movie might not be everyones cup of tea I think it's perfect for this day and age because it addresses every kind of person you can ever have in your family. They have the gay brother, the mother with cancer, the pot smoking brother, the pregnant sister with a family, the stuffy uptight business man brother, the sarcastic sister looking for love, and of course the father just trying to hold his family together. Some of the issues they address and have in the movie are, I am sure, issues that people have every day - they just put it out there. Plus it makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you feel uncomfortable when they talk about "sensitive issues" - but that's life! I think this movie did an absolutely fabulous job of pulling it all together and whether some people agree or not, the ending does put a smile on your face - at least it did for me. GREAT MOVIE!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Life Like! Sometime funny, sometime sad! Mar 03, 2011
By Casca
"theancient"
Ordinarily when a movie has so many reviews, will not add another.
This one is an exception.
Stars--- Some of these actors are not my favorites but in this movie
they proved to be a very good ensemble, good acting.
Story--- ordinary large family interaction excellently portrayed.
Laughs, tears, misunderstandings, love and acceptance of
life events. Well played, and life like. Definitely not a comedy.
This is a movie which may creep into your favorites group. It has done so
in my case.
Do recommend it.
16 of 21 found the following review helpful:
 Not funny nor deep enough for decent drama Aug 14, 2006
By Rottenberg's rotten book review
It's not really funny, nor deep enough to be genuinely dramatic - it's "The Family Stone", the latest in a long line of Hollywood's attempts to stick it to the nuclear family. The story throws in a real twist - in this case, the family isn't nuclear at all, it's the apparently conventional Stones living in a picture-perfect New England setting, but having decidedly liberal leanings. Instead, the uptight and archaic American reserve is embodied by Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker - playing well against type). Meredith is on the verge of being engaged to Everett Stone (Mulroney). Meredith has already met Amy Stone (Rachel McAdams) and unsurprisingly, Amy not only hates Meredith, but colors the family's opinion of her as well. Soon, it's not Amy, but Stone matriarch Sybil (Diane Keaton) who becomes Meredith's staunchest foe. A succession of ever-more painfully awkward scenes follow which only cement the unfavorable opinion the Stones have for Meredith (Meredith is an uptight, self-absorbed motor-mouth lacking in people skills; in the space of two days, she insults Everett's gay brother and twice insults his African-American partner). Soon, the script tosses in two plot complications - Meredith calls for help from her less uptight sister, Julie (Claire Danes), while simultaneously developing a weird chemistry with Everett's brother Ben (Luke Wilson). Will Meredith conquer or be conquered by the Stones? How can she win Sybil over?
None of these questions are ever really answered, because they're more forced than asked. The script never really examines the motivations or feelings of its characters or much else about them. We're supposed to believe that the Stones and Meredith are liberal/conservative counterpoints, but we're never supplied the evidence for either bent by either character. Even the disaster at Christmas dinner - it's unclear if we're seeing the confrontation of different philosophies or simply a grand mal faux pas on Meredith's part. Nothing really explains why Meredith is so quickly disliked by an otherwise tolerant family, and the story doesn't so much inform those motivations than simply maneuver its characters across a chessboard according to a power of will entirely external from the characters themselves. Everett's brother and his lover never become characters or even develop beyond plot devices used to take Meredith apart and enoble the Stone parents. None of the situations are all that funny, largely because they're much too clumsily handled. Few of the scenes link up to each other - most of the film is based on scenes that start in the middle and end on an awkward note, which means that they aren't dramatically coherent either. Instead, "Stone" is one more failed Hollywood stab at the nuclear family that just bombs.
See all 289 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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