The Family Stone
A film by Thomas Bezucha
(20th Century Fox)
I am not one for theatre. Perhaps it's my overexposure to paltry high school performances which involve several gangly youths improvising fifteen-minute attempts to remember their lines. Often, when I see a movie made out of a play, such as The Philadelphia Story or Meet Me In St. Louis, I find myself thanking god for the invention of the film projector. For me, there is a superficiality to the theatre; an unreality that often doesn't suit scripts such as the aforementioned Philadelphia Story, which is so firmly grounded in real life. Yet, The Family Stone is at times so farcical that I would rather have seen it on the stage than at my local cineplex.
The Family Stone is a provocative film. Bezucha sets up an odd set of contrasts in his leading characters: they appear to be a very liberal east coast family with their NPR bags and overbearing hugs, yet at the same time they have an unexplained intolerance for Meredith Morton (Sex and the City's Sarah Jessica Parker), the fiancee of the eldest Stone son Everett (Dermot Mulroney of My Best Friend's Wedding). Throughout the beginning of the film, Meredith is treated as if she were trash; yes, she is different from the Family Stone, but Bezucha's writing never gives a clear-cut explanation as to why she was so hated before even setting foot through their door. This inexplicable hatred damages the film's first act, making Sybil (Diane Keaton) and Amy Stone (Wedding Crashers' Rachel McAdams) easily reviled. When an ailment is later revealed to be afflicting Sybil, a better script may have made it easier to feel sympathetic towards her; yet the more she attacked Meredith Morton and allowed her to be ungraciously treated, the more eager this reviewer grew for her eventual demise.
In a well-acted play, the growth of imagination is encouraged. Sets are not expected to be a photographic replication, nor are characters always expected to be as well-formed beyond the actor's performance. I suspect that in theatre, perhaps I would have felt more sympathy for Sybil Stone, because it would have been easier to equate her with a stereotype of the matriarch resenting a new addition to the family. But The Family Stone's unreality only exists within the words and actions of its characters, and it is much harder in the confines of a movie theater to separate this character from the east coast scenery photographed so lushly by Bezucha.
There were good moments: though at times the viewer can conclude that Luke Wilson's interpretation of Ben Stone was based on his brother, the infamous Owen, this does little to change the fact that he was the most likeable actor and character in the whole movie. Yet the role ultimately doesn't affect the nausea that comes from watching Ben's family stoop to lower and lower levels in their attempts to defame Morton. Perhaps this movie would have been more palatable if Bezucha hadn't written scenes where Amy Stone attempts to act as if Meredith was a racist, or if he hadn't tried to make it seem as if she may actually be bigoted during an awkward dinner conversation that once again did little to better the Stones' reputation, or make Meredith the villainess that the family seems so desperately to seek. Perhaps if the film had dealt more with the true awkwardness and strangeness that comes with a family evolving from the simple child/parent dynamic, instead of trying to insert as much social criticism and tearjerkers as possible, it would've worked. And maybe, if we were back in the time when live theatre was more relevant, The Family Stone could have been a success.
Official Site
IMDb Listing
See Also: the people who will hopefully be suing this film in the best lawsuit ever
(20th Century Fox)
I am not one for theatre. Perhaps it's my overexposure to paltry high school performances which involve several gangly youths improvising fifteen-minute attempts to remember their lines. Often, when I see a movie made out of a play, such as The Philadelphia Story or Meet Me In St. Louis, I find myself thanking god for the invention of the film projector. For me, there is a superficiality to the theatre; an unreality that often doesn't suit scripts such as the aforementioned Philadelphia Story, which is so firmly grounded in real life. Yet, The Family Stone is at times so farcical that I would rather have seen it on the stage than at my local cineplex.The Family Stone is a provocative film. Bezucha sets up an odd set of contrasts in his leading characters: they appear to be a very liberal east coast family with their NPR bags and overbearing hugs, yet at the same time they have an unexplained intolerance for Meredith Morton (Sex and the City's Sarah Jessica Parker), the fiancee of the eldest Stone son Everett (Dermot Mulroney of My Best Friend's Wedding). Throughout the beginning of the film, Meredith is treated as if she were trash; yes, she is different from the Family Stone, but Bezucha's writing never gives a clear-cut explanation as to why she was so hated before even setting foot through their door. This inexplicable hatred damages the film's first act, making Sybil (Diane Keaton) and Amy Stone (Wedding Crashers' Rachel McAdams) easily reviled. When an ailment is later revealed to be afflicting Sybil, a better script may have made it easier to feel sympathetic towards her; yet the more she attacked Meredith Morton and allowed her to be ungraciously treated, the more eager this reviewer grew for her eventual demise.
In a well-acted play, the growth of imagination is encouraged. Sets are not expected to be a photographic replication, nor are characters always expected to be as well-formed beyond the actor's performance. I suspect that in theatre, perhaps I would have felt more sympathy for Sybil Stone, because it would have been easier to equate her with a stereotype of the matriarch resenting a new addition to the family. But The Family Stone's unreality only exists within the words and actions of its characters, and it is much harder in the confines of a movie theater to separate this character from the east coast scenery photographed so lushly by Bezucha.
There were good moments: though at times the viewer can conclude that Luke Wilson's interpretation of Ben Stone was based on his brother, the infamous Owen, this does little to change the fact that he was the most likeable actor and character in the whole movie. Yet the role ultimately doesn't affect the nausea that comes from watching Ben's family stoop to lower and lower levels in their attempts to defame Morton. Perhaps this movie would have been more palatable if Bezucha hadn't written scenes where Amy Stone attempts to act as if Meredith was a racist, or if he hadn't tried to make it seem as if she may actually be bigoted during an awkward dinner conversation that once again did little to better the Stones' reputation, or make Meredith the villainess that the family seems so desperately to seek. Perhaps if the film had dealt more with the true awkwardness and strangeness that comes with a family evolving from the simple child/parent dynamic, instead of trying to insert as much social criticism and tearjerkers as possible, it would've worked. And maybe, if we were back in the time when live theatre was more relevant, The Family Stone could have been a success.
Official Site
IMDb Listing
See Also: the people who will hopefully be suing this film in the best lawsuit ever
<< Home