I Don't Care Whether You Like Me or Not

The Family Stone is one of those movies that were just improperly promoted. From the trailer, it looked like the movie was a romantic comedy centered on a wacky family over Christmas; almost as if one of the children in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation had brought home a longtime girlfriend he had intended to marry. But The Family Stone was just rarely funny. Now unlike many comedies in recent memories, the problem wasn’t that it was a comedy that just wasn’t funny, instead the movie is more of a family drama that just has some humorous scenes in it.

The movie centers on Durmot Mulroney (Angels in the Outfield) who brings his girlfriend Sarah Jessica Parker (Footloose) home to meet the family for the first time as he intends to get his grandmother’s wedding ring to give to Parker. But the couple doesn’t mess well primarily because Parker makes her character one-dimensional like she was in a bad sitcom while everyone else is multi-layered. There is a possibility that this wasn’t Parker’s fault, but a better actress here could have made the movie much improved.

Rounding out Mulroney’s family are the parental figures Craig T. Nelson (Coach), the go with the flow dad and Diane Keaton (Father of the Bride II), who makes it very clear that she doesn’t want Parker to get her mother’s wedding ring. Rachael McAdams (Mean Girls) is the moody sister mainly because she isn’t getting any and the resident scene stealer. Taking after his father is Luke Wilson (Legally Blonde) who tries to get Parker to get her fly her “freak flag.” Unfortunately they threw in two more siblings which only made things more clustered including a gay homosexual brother who also happens to be deaf (although his black boyfriend is a lot more entertaining) and an even more worthless pregnant sister who spends most of the time in the background with her daughter.

Feeling outnumbered, Parker calls on her younger sister, Claire Danes (Terminator III: Rise of the Machines) whom the Stones take to because, well, she is much more endearing than her sister. Things pick up upon her arrival, but I’m sure I would have liked the movie much better had I not expected to laugh while watching. So be warned if you check The Family Stone out, it’s much more a drama than a comedy.

The Family Stone gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.