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Critics Consensus: This family holiday dramedy features fine performances but awkward shifts of tone.
Critic Consensus: This family holiday dramedy features fine performances but awkward shifts of tone.
All Critics (156) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (81) | Rotten (75) | DVD (12)
The Family Stone works hard to warm the cockles of our hearts. The cast is attractive. The sentiments are commendable. But the love Bezucha wants us to feel for the family couldn't possibly compete with the love they already feel for themselves.
I can't deny the incidental pleasures of watching these talented players giving it their all, even in such a misguided project.
It's worth two hours for those who appreciate this kind of workmanlike, low-risk drama.
Some will find it touching, some will be too weary of the plot contrivances and the smug Stone family to care.
A feel-bad holiday film about a repellent family, with a milquetoast dad and a smug, devious harpy of a mom.
This is one busy wannabe heart-tugger.
The movie feels sentimental but never cheesy: Our allegiances shift throughout, until we decide everyone deserves our sympathy, everyone has reasons.
a gob of yuletide Play-Doh
I loved it.
The farcical elements are much too loaded to provide any real fun, and the Stones come off more as sanctimonious, politically correct left-wing prigs than enchanting.
The movie feels a lot like slacker brother Ben: a little sloppy, mostly predictable, some flashes of poignancy and wisdom, but ultimately doesn't live up to its potential.
What's so refreshing about Thomas Bezucha's The Family Stone is how it plays off of genre expectations and effortlessly switches back and forth between comedy, romance and tragedy.
Everett brings his uptight girlfriend Meredith (SJP) home to meet his family at Christmas with disastrous consequences. From the trailer this looks like a funny Christmas movie, but this is not a funny movie. The ending made me sad. Good cast.
Super Reviewer
The cast give it their best shot, but they can't save this film from a script full of contrived drama and jarring tone inconsistencies. When the film is trying to be dramatic, it feels like a Lifetime channel movie. The relationships are unbelievable and the family comes across as unpleasant and mean. When the film is trying to be funny, it is humorless slapstick that is usually placed after "serious" moments. The movie is also very blandly directed and the cinematography is TV movie quality. Their is some good acting and a few little laughs but the film does not work as a whole. This movie is not a "feel-good" romantic comedy, it is a "feel-bad" TV movie that somehow missed the Lifetime channel.
Completely underrated! Great film!
A cast full of talented people but the characters are so unpleasant why would you want to spend a hour with them.
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