The Family Stone
Year: 2005
Director: Thomas Bezucha
Starring: Claire Danes, Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney & Ben Wilson
Runtime: 104 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 10/12/21
Director: Thomas Bezucha
Starring: Claire Danes, Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney & Ben Wilson
Runtime: 104 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 10/12/21
Have you ever felt unwelcome by your new partners family? I can speak from first-hand experience (thankfully one from a long time ago) that it is one of the worst feelings in the world. The loaded questions, the judgemental looks, how they often go out of their way to make you know that you aren’t wanted in the same room as them. It’s made even worse when said partners don’t stick up for you because either they defend any negative action a family member makes with the excuse that they’re family so it’s fine, or they simply don’t have the spine to stand up for their choice in partner and call their family out for being horrible people.
The Family Stone sees Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her boyfriend Everett (Dermot Mulroney) travel to spend Christmas with Everett’s family, the Stone’s. This is the first time Meredith will have met many of them and is understandably nervous about being thrown in at the deep end by spending several days with the entire family.
Upon arrival Meredith is greeted coldly by almost all the members of the family who have heard horror stories from youngest daughter Amy (Rachel McAdams) about how Meredith is uptight and self-obsessed.
Meredith is then placed in a series of increasingly worse situations by the Stone family, usually orchestrated by Amy or Sybil (Diane Keaton) the family’s matriarch. Meredith hopes to remedy this by inviting her sister Julie (Claire Danes) over so that she may have some support (as Everett clearly isn’t giving her any) and familiarity in such a hostile environment.
I’m going to be up front about this now, I don’t like The Family Stone. The film itself is competently made and is generally enjoyable to watch, but I hate the characters so much for being such generally awful human beings, and it’s made even worse by the fact that you're meant to side with the Stone family that Meredith is simply just up-tight, fussy, and self-centred, when she really isn’t.
Well, that’s not entirely true because she is. Meredith does have a tendency to say or do the wrong thing. Throughout the film she is made out to be racially insensitive, homophobic, ableist, ditsy, short fused, high strung, and unfriendly. However, most of these traits, in fact almost all of them can be pinned on how she is treated by the family. The only two traits that aren't defensible are the racism and homophobia. Thad Stone (Tyrone Giordano), the youngest boy, is in a gay relationship with Patrick (Brian J. White), a black man. This gives The Family Stone the ability to make some interesting statements about homophobia and race in ways that were progressive around the time of the films release. It does handle these moderately well, however one scene in particular Meredith condemns Sybil for praying to have gay sons, as Meredith feels that being gay automatically puts you at a disadvantage in life and then likens it to being born black. Whilst there certainly is an element of truth in what Meredith says (because let's face it, if you're not straight and white your life is going to be more difficult because of bigoted people) it’s more how she says it that is problematic. This action is certainly indefensible; however, it acts as the tipping point for the family on Meredith as the last straw in a long line of indiscretions which are simply down to their own foul play, bad attitudes, or just outright desire to see Meredith miserable from the moment she stepped over their threshold.
The Family Stone sees Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her boyfriend Everett (Dermot Mulroney) travel to spend Christmas with Everett’s family, the Stone’s. This is the first time Meredith will have met many of them and is understandably nervous about being thrown in at the deep end by spending several days with the entire family.
Upon arrival Meredith is greeted coldly by almost all the members of the family who have heard horror stories from youngest daughter Amy (Rachel McAdams) about how Meredith is uptight and self-obsessed.
Meredith is then placed in a series of increasingly worse situations by the Stone family, usually orchestrated by Amy or Sybil (Diane Keaton) the family’s matriarch. Meredith hopes to remedy this by inviting her sister Julie (Claire Danes) over so that she may have some support (as Everett clearly isn’t giving her any) and familiarity in such a hostile environment.
I’m going to be up front about this now, I don’t like The Family Stone. The film itself is competently made and is generally enjoyable to watch, but I hate the characters so much for being such generally awful human beings, and it’s made even worse by the fact that you're meant to side with the Stone family that Meredith is simply just up-tight, fussy, and self-centred, when she really isn’t.
Well, that’s not entirely true because she is. Meredith does have a tendency to say or do the wrong thing. Throughout the film she is made out to be racially insensitive, homophobic, ableist, ditsy, short fused, high strung, and unfriendly. However, most of these traits, in fact almost all of them can be pinned on how she is treated by the family. The only two traits that aren't defensible are the racism and homophobia. Thad Stone (Tyrone Giordano), the youngest boy, is in a gay relationship with Patrick (Brian J. White), a black man. This gives The Family Stone the ability to make some interesting statements about homophobia and race in ways that were progressive around the time of the films release. It does handle these moderately well, however one scene in particular Meredith condemns Sybil for praying to have gay sons, as Meredith feels that being gay automatically puts you at a disadvantage in life and then likens it to being born black. Whilst there certainly is an element of truth in what Meredith says (because let's face it, if you're not straight and white your life is going to be more difficult because of bigoted people) it’s more how she says it that is problematic. This action is certainly indefensible; however, it acts as the tipping point for the family on Meredith as the last straw in a long line of indiscretions which are simply down to their own foul play, bad attitudes, or just outright desire to see Meredith miserable from the moment she stepped over their threshold.
I feel as though if you are against the Stone’s then you’re supposed to see Amy as the ‘villain’ of the story as she is the one who verbally makes life most difficult for Meredith. However, I personally feel like Sybil Stone is one of the most vindictive, spiteful, and evil women I have ever seen depicted in film. She has complete contempt for Meredith before she even arrives, and not only this but she riles up members of the Stone family against Meredith at various points in the film for fun. In the process of trying to make Meredith as unwelcome as possible she is ruining Christmas for her own family. When Everett asks Sybil for his grandmothers wedding ring to propose to Meredith, Sybil refuses under the pretence that she doesn’t like Meredith so she is revoking Everett’s rightful claim to the family heir loom, but she will give it to him if he marries literally anyone else.
It’s revealed later in the film that Sybil is in the late stages of breast cancer and has not told anyone other than her husband. I feel like this is a massive attempt to try and shift some of the blame off of Sybil being a genuinely awful person and gain her some sympathy from audiences. But personally, it makes me hate her more. This is the last Christmas she will spend with her family, and she would rather turn everyone against each other and make it a miserable affair, rather than enjoy what could be the last time she will have all of her children together before her death. This effect is felt so much more when in the films epilogue we are transported forward a year, Sybil has succumbed to her illness and everyone is happy. There are no arguments, there’s no petty rivalries that are stoked by her, there are no snide comments that she makes to rile people up. It’s just peace and happiness. The fact of the matter is the family was clearly better off without her, and if I were Everett, I would have stood up to her for being such a poisonous presence.
I’m going to talk about some of the final plot developments of the film for a bit so if you want it spoiler free then skip to the end. After running away from a dinner for the homophobic and racist comments, Meredith is joined by Ben (Luke Wilson), the middle son. Ben takes Meredith to a bar where she spills her guts, comes out of her shell, and bonds with Ben. Meanwhile Everett goes looking for her with Julie. During this time Everett falls in love with her, somehow. The following morning Meredith wakes up in Ben’s bed, believing them to have slept together. Everett then essentially proposes to Julie who is understandably uncomfortable and leaves. Meredith tells Everett (not knowing about Everett’s proposal) about sleeping with Ben and this causes a fight to break out between Ben & Everett. This fight results in Everett basically confirming that he never even loved Meredith, and the proposal to Julie is revealled.
The film comes to an emotional climax when Everett goes looking for Julie to convince her to stay, which she turns down but then agrees to meet him for New Years?! Meredith meanwhile appears to shack up with Ben proper this time. Then everyone is happy?
It’s an awful ending. If I were Meredith I would have run for the hills and got as far away from that family as I possibly could have done as none of them are nice people. As for Julie, why does she think it’s ok to get a proposal from her sister's boyfriend who she has just met, and then agree to date him? In the epilogue we see that Ben & Meredith, and Everett & Julie are still together, implying both relationships are stable. But Why did either of these girls stay with this awful family?!?! It angers me so much!
It’s revealed later in the film that Sybil is in the late stages of breast cancer and has not told anyone other than her husband. I feel like this is a massive attempt to try and shift some of the blame off of Sybil being a genuinely awful person and gain her some sympathy from audiences. But personally, it makes me hate her more. This is the last Christmas she will spend with her family, and she would rather turn everyone against each other and make it a miserable affair, rather than enjoy what could be the last time she will have all of her children together before her death. This effect is felt so much more when in the films epilogue we are transported forward a year, Sybil has succumbed to her illness and everyone is happy. There are no arguments, there’s no petty rivalries that are stoked by her, there are no snide comments that she makes to rile people up. It’s just peace and happiness. The fact of the matter is the family was clearly better off without her, and if I were Everett, I would have stood up to her for being such a poisonous presence.
I’m going to talk about some of the final plot developments of the film for a bit so if you want it spoiler free then skip to the end. After running away from a dinner for the homophobic and racist comments, Meredith is joined by Ben (Luke Wilson), the middle son. Ben takes Meredith to a bar where she spills her guts, comes out of her shell, and bonds with Ben. Meanwhile Everett goes looking for her with Julie. During this time Everett falls in love with her, somehow. The following morning Meredith wakes up in Ben’s bed, believing them to have slept together. Everett then essentially proposes to Julie who is understandably uncomfortable and leaves. Meredith tells Everett (not knowing about Everett’s proposal) about sleeping with Ben and this causes a fight to break out between Ben & Everett. This fight results in Everett basically confirming that he never even loved Meredith, and the proposal to Julie is revealled.
The film comes to an emotional climax when Everett goes looking for Julie to convince her to stay, which she turns down but then agrees to meet him for New Years?! Meredith meanwhile appears to shack up with Ben proper this time. Then everyone is happy?
It’s an awful ending. If I were Meredith I would have run for the hills and got as far away from that family as I possibly could have done as none of them are nice people. As for Julie, why does she think it’s ok to get a proposal from her sister's boyfriend who she has just met, and then agree to date him? In the epilogue we see that Ben & Meredith, and Everett & Julie are still together, implying both relationships are stable. But Why did either of these girls stay with this awful family?!?! It angers me so much!
Moving on from the story, I enjoy almost all the performances in this film. Despite being a horrible character, Diane Keaton is the scene stealer and gives a great performance as Sybil. It can also be quite funny, particularly during the Christmas Day scene when Meredith wakes up in Ben’s bed, Amy has an unexpected visitor, and the fight breaks out. In fact, the only thing I don’t like about The Family Stone is how horrible the Stone family are. I hate that the film frames them as the good guys and Meredith is the problem. Sure, she isn’t perfect. But it’s clear from the moment she steps out the car on their driveway that she isn’t made welcome, and most of the problems people have with her are ones they are creating. The performances are good, the characters are well written, it’s got good editing, a good script. It’s literally just how terrible these people are and how we as an audience are supposed to root for them. It doesn’t work!
The Family Stone is a perfectly decent film in terms of how it has been made. But for me the characters spoil the whole experience. I don’t enjoy spending time with them and they do nothing but rile me up. I don’t want to watch a film like that, especially when it’s supposed to be a comedy film set at Christmas. It’s a hard pass from me, but I’m sure some people will see it differently to me and love it.
The Family Stone is a perfectly decent film in terms of how it has been made. But for me the characters spoil the whole experience. I don’t enjoy spending time with them and they do nothing but rile me up. I don’t want to watch a film like that, especially when it’s supposed to be a comedy film set at Christmas. It’s a hard pass from me, but I’m sure some people will see it differently to me and love it.