After a bit of a rocky start, The Family Stone blossoms into a beautifully crafted morass of dysfunctionality.
Comment
12/16/05
The Family Stone (2005)
52
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:147
Fresh:77
Rotten:70
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: This family holiday dramedy features fine performances but awkward shifts of tone.
Theatrical Release:16-12-2005
Synopsis: Destined to be a Christmas classic, Thomas Bezucha's dazzling dramedy, THE FAMILY STONE, manages to be both warmhearted and sentimental while possessing a razor-sharp hilarious mean streak. The... [More]
Starring: Claire Danes, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Sarah Jessica Parker
Director: Thomas Bezucha
Reviews for The Family Stone
So, despite its flaws, there is plenty to like, just like any family.
12/16/05
Top Critic[A] pleasingly off-kilter domestic comedy.
12/16/05
While some may roll their eyes at the outrageous fantasyland the Stones live in, others will look at it with wistfulness. Either way, it's a fun place.
12/15/05
Features a nice ensemble in a story about family prejudice dynamics.
12/15/05
Even with an empty tank of ideas by the end of the picture, Stone still remains worthy of a view, providing that desired blast of familial idiosyncrasies just in time for the holiday season.
12/15/05
The movie is wonderful as a drama, and wonderful when a comedy, but when the scenes are placed side by side, it's a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde movie mish mash.
12/15/05
... pleasant enough company, but it's a bit like playing charades with the same titles over and over.
12/15/05
Bezucha's film accurately captures the forlorn hysteria of those few days when love should be the primary emotion and not judgmental claustrophobia.
12/15/05
just when it seems we're going to be stuck with nothing more than a well-played, holidays-are-hell comedy, Bezucha spins the story in a different, far more rewarding direction.
12/15/05
Sort of like Meet the Parents... at Christmastime... without the laughs.
12/15/05
An absolute freakin' nightmare.
12/15/05
This is a family, and a movie, where everyone talks at once -- and more often than you'd think, its characters actually come up with something worth saying.
12/15/05
The movie's warmth is contagious. Too bad its humor isn't.
12/15/05
Hollywood is always making family comedies, but they are rarely about real families: relations who are as difficult as they are wonderful, people who both love and irritate the heck out of each other. Families like The Family Stone.
12/15/05
Top CriticA lump of coal brightened by four diamond-sharp performances.
12/15/05
Not the kind of family you'd want to spend an hour with, much less a weekend.
12/15/05
I can't think of an instance in which a film went from under-the-radar to wildly overhyped with the same speed as The Family Stone.
12/15/05
Though the laughs are intact, serious subplots... add an unwelcome weight that shifts the whole thing off-kilter.
12/15/05
This is pleasing holiday fare that may stay with you through the first months of 2006.
12/15/05
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