| | | Feel the Love.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, English, Spanish, Subtitled
An incredible all-star cast shines in this deliriously funny comedy that "balances heart and humor" (Houston Chronicle) with a "sharp comic edge" (Rolling Stone)! Featuring Sarah Jessica Parker in a Golden Globe-nominated role, The Family Stone is "engaging, enticing [and] first-rate" (Los Angeles Times)!Corporate executive Meredith Morton (Parker) is as uptight and ultra-conservative as her pin-striped designer suit. Her boyfriend Everett Stone's (Dermot Mulroney) family is as relaxed and quirky as their aging New England Colonial. So when Meredith ventures out of Manhattan to meet Everett's clan, it's no wonder her arrival is met with all the enthusiasm of a nasty Nor'easter. But one surprise guest, two shocking romances and several beers later, Meredith's icy exterior begins to thaw...and she may just melt the hearts of the Family Stone!
"The performances are delightful, and the picture comes together." David Edelstein, Slate
"Two Thumbs Up!" Ebert & Roeper and the Movies
"A satisfying, big-hearted celebration..." Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"Laugh-out-loud hilarious! Smart! Moving! One of [2005]'s best!" New York Observer
"Keaton, a sorceress at blending humor and heartbreak, honors the film with a grace that makes it stick in the memory." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"...a warm and engaging film that is sure to become a perennial Christmas favorite." Rachel Clarke, Premiere
Editor's Note
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 fairly conventional story centers on Sarah Jessica Parker's uptight career woman, Meredith, and her run-in with the eponymous Stone family. With her permanently pursed lips and severe bun, SJP looks and acts the anti-Carrie Bradshaw here as, armed with cell phone and business-suit collection, she gears up to meet her fiance's oddball family, a tight-knit, colorful clan who border on bohemian. Matriarch Sybil (Diane Keaton) and patriarch Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) are a loving couple whose diverse children are affectionate and respectful. When Meredith's humorless aura infects the homestead, it is mom Sybil and sister Amy (Rachel McAdams), who sense a romantic mismatch and attack her venomously, sparking a tete-a-tete-a-tete between three feisty females. While this Battle Royal is waged, dramatic subplots brew in the background, one involving the deaf and gay brother Thad's desire to adopt a child, and the other a rather devastating secret on the verge of exposure. It is in the emergence of Meredith's refreshingly calm and breezy younger sister, Julie (Claire Danes), entering the film with a dramatic fall from a bus exit, that brings all conflict to a head.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Special Gift Pack Wrap | | Subtitles: English, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 10/16/2007 |
| Running Time: 106 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 2237315 | | UPC: 00024543373155 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2006) | | | Golden Globe, Sarah Jessica Parker, Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture-Drama | |
Golden Globe (2006) | | | Sarah Jessica Parker, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 5 -- "Keaton, a sorceress at blending humor and heartbreak, honors the film with a grace that makes it stick in the memory." 12/15/2005 p.162Entertainment Weekly
"Parker has a great time being the anti-Carrie Bradshaw while Keaton-as-matriarch is a particular joy -- funny, beautiful, elegant, touching, and at ease..." -- Grade: B 02/01/2006 p.61-62 USA Today
"[S]tuffed with beguiling performances -- some of them unexpectedly good..." 12/16/2005 p.6E Los Angeles Times
"[I]ts offbeat mixture of highly choreographed comic crises and the occasional bite of reality make for an unexpectedly enticing blend." 12/16/2005 p.E1 Sight and Sound
"[It is] refreshing to see a modern update on the nuclear family..." 01/01/2006 p.56 ReelViews 8 of 10
It's a tough thing for a dysfunctional-family-at-Christmas movie to avoid doses of melodrama, and it's fair to say that The Family Stone contains its share. But the nice thing about the movie is that it avoids overt manipulation. There's some - it's virtually impossible for a movie of this sort to generate an emotional response without any - but it's kept to a minimum and doesn't come at the viewer like a sledgehammer. Instead of having to sit through a Terms of Endearment scene, we are offered something more tasteful...I have seen The Family Stone categorized in some places as a "screwball comedy," but this is an inappropriate label. There are a few mildly comedic moments sprinkled throughout the production, but this belongs in the drama category. Laughter, although it may occur (and hopefully in all the right places), is not the primary goal of writer/director Thomas Bezucha. He wants The Family Stone to touch a deeper chord. For the most part, he succeeds...The talented cast helps. Sarah Jessica Parker, finding that there is life after Sex in the City, has no difficulty with Meredith's arc. Of all the characters in the movie, she undergoes the biggest transformation, and Parker aces it. Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson settle comfortably into the matriarch/patriarch roles, and there is one especially touching scene between the two of them. Luke Wilson brings his special brand of relaxed, "don't worry, be happy" performance to the proceedings. Rachel McAdams, 2005's "it" girl (see also Wedding Crashers and Red Eye), imparts a dose of charisma...It's worth mentioning that this is the best adult holiday film in a while. (Of course, competition has been thin - Christmas with the Kranks, Surviving Christmas, etc.)...Even taking this into consideration, it's worth two hours for those who appreciate this kind of workmanlike, low-risk drama. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"The Family Stone" is silly at times, leaning toward the screwball tradition of everyone racing around the house at the same time in a panic fueled by serial misunderstandings. There is also a thoughtful side, involving the long and loving marriage of Sybil and Kelly. Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson create touching characters in the middle of comic chaos. They have a scene together as true and intimate in its way as a scene involving a long-married couple can be. It doesn't involve a lot of dialogue, and doesn't need to, because it obviously draws on a lot of history...There is an emerging genre of movies about family reunions at holiday time. It seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that most reunions at Christmas end happily, while most reunions at Thanksgiving end sadly. That's odd, because the way things shake down in the world of fragmented families, we tend to spend Thanksgiving with those we choose, and Christmas with those we must. If those two lists are identical in your life, your holidays must all be joyous, or all not...What is always true is that the holiday itself imposes Aristotle's unities of time and place upon the plot. Most of the action takes place in the house or on the way and from it, and whatever happens will have to happen before everybody heads back to the airport. That creates an artificial deadline that makes everything seem more urgent and requires that the truth be told or love declared right here and now, or not at all..."The Family Stone" sorts out its characters admirably, depends on typecasting to help establish its characters more quickly, and finds a winding path between happy and sad secrets to that moment when we realize that the Family Stone will always think of this fateful Christmas with a smile, and a tear. What else do you want? - Roger Ebert
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