so I watched The Family Stone (2005) for the first time today
I was busy in college when it first came out and never got around to it until now. Overall it's a fun holiday film. I like that it has a lot of known actors playing a family/in-laws.
Very progressive for 2005 to not only have a family accepting a gay couple but an interracial gay couple. I know the film got flak for making the white guy also deaf ("too pc!!!!") but the disabled are really underrepresented in hollywood so I'm not bothered by it. Remember this was several years before the Marriage Equality Act and none of us would have thought during the Bush years that gay acceptance would skyrocket less than a decade later. I know it's a family film but I would have liked some more affection shown between the gay couple. They only put an arm around each other in various scenes and there was 1 ear tug. A kiss or maybe a non-sexual scene of them lying in bed together would have been nice. Brian White is hot!
Sarah Jessica Parker wow I think she was good at playing the role of a pretentious neurotic mess. I forgot how underweight she looks though as I hadn't seen her in a while. No way could she and Claire Danes really pass for full-blooded sisters though
The spilled strata scene was very camp
Diane Keaten, Craig T Nelson, Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson and the rest were fun as a family together.
I thought the plot was kinda dull and the ending was dumb but overall I don't regret watching this
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | January 22, 2020 12:17 AM
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Not sure how cutting edge the portrayal of gay men was. Among other films with gay characters in 2005: Brokeback Mountain; Capote; Breakfast on Pluto; Happy Endings.
The film reminds me that SJP is too brittle to play a brittle woman, and that I still don't like Diane Keaton. Dermott Mulroney was terrible. Paul Schneider who was oddly good, again, at being odd and the Stone house were the stars for me.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | January 20, 2020 7:04 PM
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Feel good movie. Love Diane Keaton!!
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | January 20, 2020 7:10 PM
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OP - it's become my favorite Holiday film now, second to the original Miracle on 34th Street. (and I've grown a bit tired of A Christmas Story).
My favorite scene is when the family unwraps SJP's xmas gifts, and realize she's not the villain they've made her out to be.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | January 20, 2020 7:14 PM
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The film was hardly progressive for including a gay couple accepted by their family. It was 2005 not 1985.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | January 20, 2020 7:23 PM
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It’s an odd film. On the one hand, I loved how much his family comes to his defense at the dinner table, and it made me yearn to have a family who would do the same for me. On the other hand, what a bunch of cunts. The way they go after SJP seemed totally contrived.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | January 20, 2020 7:36 PM
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One of the worst movies ever made. I rented it only because I loved Rachel McAdams at the time. The movie was absolute shit and a waste of everyone's time. Rachel made a lot of shitty films over the years. Red Eye. The Notebook. How many good movies has she ever made? Not many.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | January 20, 2020 7:44 PM
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They were shown in bed rhythmically spooning, that was a lot for that era.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | January 20, 2020 8:00 PM
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It's pretty funny, actually. The bar scene is classic.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | January 20, 2020 8:04 PM
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R7 I must have missed that. Is that towards the beginning middle or end of the movie?
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | January 20, 2020 8:05 PM
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We don't start sentences with "so."
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | January 20, 2020 8:06 PM
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so basically, R10 is a huge cunt.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | January 20, 2020 10:52 PM
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So, I'd hang myself if I had a family like this. Thought that this movie was a great example as to why SJP should stay in TV.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | January 21, 2020 1:34 AM
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The family was so self-righteous and condescending. SJP's character was a brittle bitch but the family was so mean to her.
I can't help but watch it every Christmas. It is entertaining. But infuriating.
There is no way SJP and Dermot Mulroney's characters would actually date. And it was gross how Dermot was hitting on SJP's sister in the movie.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | January 21, 2020 2:29 AM
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A super dull film and a total waste of a good cast. They should have made it into either a drama or a full-blooded comedy, because it just didn't work as a dramedy. There wasn't anything particularly funny nor touching about it (with the possible exception of the gift unwrapping scene someone above already mentioned).
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | January 21, 2020 2:42 AM
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r10 sounds like one of the Stone family member.
So, in other words, A CUNT.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | January 21, 2020 2:44 AM
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It’s a hell of a lot better than Diane’s other 🎄 movie, Love The Coopers (co-starring our Timmy). Now that one was a complete turd!
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | January 21, 2020 3:56 AM
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R7 Showing two men spooning was not 'a lot' for 2005. Who is this poster who thinks that we were in the dark ages re gay representation just 15 years ago?
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | January 22, 2020 12:17 AM
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