The Family Stone
Published December 26, 2022
Film info
- Title The Family Stone
- Director Thomas Bezucha
- Year 2005
- Run time 1hr 43m
- Genres Romance, Comedy, Drama
- Tagline Feel the love
Join the eccentric Stone family for a holiday gathering filled with unexpected surprises. Before the festivities are over, love affairs will unravel, new ones will form, outrageous secrets will be revealed and the family will come together like never before.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 2:50 | Pretty big cast in this one. Lots of famouses. |
| 5:00 | Lovely bit of sign language to kick things off. |
| 10:30 | I enjoy Amy’s inability to keep a thought in her head. |
| 11:26 | Welp, this film has ruined throat-clearing for me. |
| 21:16 | “I am not a completely ridiculous person.” If you have to say it… |
| 30:19 | Oof, family heirlooms can be so complicated. |
| 39:54 | Imagine your first impression on people is faceplanting out of a bus! |
| 47:52 | She was just planning to leave her sister there?? |
| 57:07 | It’s all you need to chill out the most uptight of humans - beer! |
| 1:08:17 | That car’s not going to start in the morning if he’s gone to sleep with the lights on. |
| 1:20:46 | “You did good.” That’s cute. |
| 1:24:23 | CARNAGE. |
| 1:30:54 | This guy is very comfortable running on the snow. |
| 1:37:20 | I sort of can’t get my head around how huge an extended family you’ll have with five children. |
Thoughts
There’s no getting away from the fact that this is a slightly oddball movie - the fact that the brother immediately starts hitting on SJP’s character is supremely uncomfortable, but then Elliot wasn’t exactly subtle once the sister showed up. It was never quite clear what the focus was or where it was going, or what the main aim was, but perhaps that’s because the main point of the whole thing was that families are weird.
They can be territorial and have their own secret languages and traditions, inside jokes and long-standing dramas. There are so many wonderful small details in this film, and it really just leans in to being what it is, spending time in a family that you don’t know very well as they start unravelling layers and revealing more about themselves. It’s odd but it was really very good.
Rating: 4 / 5
