| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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MUCH MUCH Better than the commercials present
by Harold (movies profile)
Feb 12, 2008
329
of
426 people found this review helpful
Contrary to the way the commercials and trailers would have us believe, THE FAMILY STONE is NOT a screwball comedy about a wacky family at Christmastime. In fact, it's a warm, deep moment in time with people we all know, us, our families, the families of friends and people we love. Let's face it, as we grow up, return to families at the holidays we're expected to sleep in our rooms, assume our roles that have been firmly established for decades. Introduce and outsider and the layers get PEELED back, and we become naked in the new light forcing us to change or admit, "we're not all that" outside of the safety of our own "press."
You'd have to be cold around the heart not to like and appreciate the story and the characters. Don't listen to the critics, especially the bovine likes of Dargis of the NYT. She and her lot must be the most unhappy, lonely and resentful tribe of miscreants who won't accept that lots of people are OK, that families do exist, that just because there's a gay couple in the movie doesn't mean it calls fora celebration (gay couples can be banal too).
Hey, the writer/director is one to watch. He patiently, over years, assembled a stellar cast to match and compliment the family he created. Go see it, tell your friends and family that there's an excellent movie that's waiting for them and they'll thank you.
Merry Christmas, warm those hearts of "Stone" |
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