La joya de la familia

The Family Stone (2005) surprised me in a very good way. All of the actors did very well with the script and with both the funny and dramatic scenes. Sarah Jessica Parker earned a golden globe nomination for this movie, very well deserved! Sarah nailed both her dramatic and humorous dialogue in the various scenes. Of course Diane Keaton did very well in her own character, along with Craig T. Nelson (Poltergeist). Rachel McAdams did a great job as well, and Claire Danes was my favorite character in the entire movie. The script, storyline, and dialogue between characters was all very sharp and well written in my opinion. This movie actually has some pleasing surprises and twists that you definitely do not see coming, at least I didn't! Overall this is a fun, entertaining, funny, dramatic, well acted, and well written holiday film that will warm your heart and for sure make you laugh! 7/10 for The Family Stone.

Honoring Diane Keaton. And now I've got a few more Diane Keaton movies added to my Watchlist. I've seen quite a lot of her but there are still a few that I could try out.

First impression - love that Diane Keaton just looks and dresses like herself while playing a character in this movie. I think she did that in a lot of these lighter movies and she was probably given free rein with her character, as she should. She is gorgeous. Second - how many children did this woman give birth to?

Everybody's mean to Meredith and that's probably like three quarters of the movie, and while Sarah Jessica Parker does her best to make her tough to like, she doesn't deserve it. At some point it really became too much, they could just ignore her. This is not really a comedy, I don't even understand how they marketed this, it's just downright mean and then it went sideways in a big way. I did not understand the low rating watching it but when Everett started going for Julie and Ben was practically hitting on Meredith every chance he got it just lost me completely. Meredith and Ben are a case of opposites attract that wouldn't make it for long in the real world, not with her career and Everett and Julie is just so damn creepy in that entire context, it's just bad timing and in bad taste and I really hope people don't do this in real life cause I will disinherit family over that. So yeah, that's how I rated this movie, despite the fact that it's got an amazing cast and they all played their insufferable roles to perfection.

I'm going to keep it short since I just did a rewatch after having seen it almost 20 years ago, yes, time flies, isn't it...? And something still irks me to this day, I remember quite well it was advertised then, as it is today in Netflix, as a "Christmas" movie, and I mean, sure, it is winter, there is snow, and there are a couple of extra things that has to be there but it is a bit too much on the nose at times, I know, I know, it was 2005, but the low punches since the very beginning where a bit too much, and of course it is going to make you cry for all the wrong reasons in this genre but anyway, maybe watch it in any other time of the year? While you are not depressed/sad already, of course.

I must disagree with many of the film's critics who found this to be a pleasant and amusing view of a complicated family holiday reunion. Perhaps because of my background as a mental health professional, I found this to be a very confusing and inconsistent attempt to picture what could have been a funny family event. The writers touched so many bases that one wonders if five families could have contained the many quirks, pathologies and eccentricities found in this single unit. My overall impression was of the incredible nastiness this family displayed toward the fiancée of the eldest son, a person no one but the youngest daughter had ever met, but who became the target of hostility, primarily based on the report given by the nasty little sister. The fact that the parents were incapable of maintaining even a modicum of civility or to set the example for the children, speaks to their dysfunction rather than the humor of the situation. Yes, I realize that a terminal illness was also an issue, and yes, Keaton is a fine actress, but her character failed the test of grace--more the writer's fault than Keaton's.

I think that what would actually have happened in this situation is that either the eldest son would have upbraided his family for their boorish and cruel behavior, taken his fiancée and left(if he was really committed)telling them they could call him when they grew up; or, the fiancée, seeing that he was not really committed, would have left, herself. However, had either of these things happened, the movie would have been about 20 minutes long, too short for Roger Ebert to have waxed eloquent.

I enjoyed this one, It was just sort of addictive watching this eccentric (normal) family going about the trials and tribulations of love and life at Christmas. Sarah Jessica Parker is an absolute mess here and super fun to watch, she steals the movie actually which surprised the hell out me because she doesn't usually have that much range.

A touching comedy about an uptight, ultra conservative businesswoman (ice queen) who accompanies her boyfriend to his outgoing and screwy family's annual Christmas celebration. He has plans to propose, she is overwhelmed by the hostile reception.

Great extended cast too, including Craig T. Nelson & Diane Keaton as the parents with Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Elizabeth Reaser and Luke Wilson as the kids and (an underused) Claire Danes. I enjoyed everyone's character here and was entertained by the mayhem throughout, even surprised by some of the events. Great acting from all amid moments of humour and even some heartbreak (Keaton has a couple of very raw scenes). 12/23/14