The Family Stone (2005)
Thomas Bezucha
Impression published on Wednesday, 2009-12-30 | Film | 2 stars
I mean, yeah: I'll watch tear-jerker domestic dramas.
I used to watch "Beaches" with my mother as a kid and perhaps it is something like nostalgia that inspires me to feel "open" towards a genre that I really ought to regard with complete indifference. And, speaking honestly and generally, tear-jerkers are a genre I like to avoid, as I tend to mist up easily at the movies (and, for example, found myself sobbing bitterly into my armpit a few weeks back when the Ghost of Christmas Future showed Michael Caine the death of Tiny Tim in the Muppet Christmas Carol), and also tend to detest the cloying sentimentality with which the inevitably one-dimensional characters dramatize carefully modulated, cleanly concluded microcosmic domestic triumphs and tragedies as envisioned by New York novelists and as sanitized by Hollywood script doctors.
I also, additionally, have little patience for creative work that perpetuates the myth of the afflicted person who dies with quiet, solemn dignity and leaves behind a saddened but strengthened corps of friends and family. The fact of the matter is that there is no such thing as a solemn, dignified death and lengthy struggles against terminal illnesses don't strengthen shit. They destroy lives and families, inflicting permanent emotional and social injuries: end of story.
But, as I said, I've got this inexplicable tolerance for the genre, and so I'll watch a movie like The Family Stone which, in its defense and to its credit, spends its first 30 minutes being a Hollywood ensemble comedy about a "quirky" family living in a mythical Connecticut (where the houses are impossibly quaint/cute, the cable-knit sweaters are uniformly flattering, the leaves are perpetually crimson and everyone drives an old VW station wagon) and is actually pretty watchable during the first half. And, even when a movie like this starts making desperate, rat-like claw-swipes at the heart-strings, I'll keep watching it.
But I can see why other people might turn it off. The pacing is a touch on the slow side--the film drags you along at a modest speed, making sure that everyone in the audience, no matter how dense, is able to accurately infer each character's motivations--and though most of the celebrity cast gets an adequate amount of face-time, Coach (Craig T. Nelson) definitely doesn't get as mach as I would have liked. The Family Stone also has a Wilson brother, which is always a plus.
It remains, however very much a genre film. And the genre tropes it slavishly enacts aren't particularly fun or exciting to watch. In the final estimation, it's an OK movie to watch, but if something better comes up, definitely don't be afraid to jump at the opportunity.
