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Cast is the only thing that shines in 'The Family Stone'

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"The Family Stone" can't decide if it wants to be "The Royal Tenenbaums" or "Terms of Endearment." So it settles on old-school screwball along the lines of "You Can't Take It With You," which won best picture in 1938.

But what worked then doesn't necessarily work now. And writer-director Thomas Bezucha is neither George S. Kaufman nor Moss Hart nor Frank Capra.

20th Century Fox

'The Family Stone'

C+

The verdict: Fun cast, but short of the sleigh ride you'd wish.

Director: Thomas Bezucha
Starring: Dermot Mulroney, Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams
Run time: 102 minutes
Release date: Dec. 16, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual content including dialogue, and drug references.
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When Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) brings his uptight Manhattan-maintenance-level girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home for the holidays to meet his family, they drive up to a cozy snow-covered New England-y house and discover his mother, Sybil (Diane Keaton), sitting in front of a perfect Christmas tree. The scene is so overwhelmingly pure comfort-and-joy, you can't imagine anything going wrong as Everett prepares to pop the question.

But anything — actually, everything — does. Quite quickly.

The bumptious bohemian Stone brood decide Meredith just isn't their type and treat her accordingly. Outspoken sister Amy (wonderful Rachel McAdams), who's already met her, makes fun of Meredith's nervous cough — "It's like she's digging for clams" — and sure enough, Meredith is hacking before she's in the door. Laid-back, seemingly perpetually stoned, brother Ben (Luke Wilson), in from L.A., thinks Meredith's kinda funny. And maybe not so much of a monster.

Family patriarch Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) is inclined to agree until Meredith inexplicably goes on a homophobic rant (well, not really, but it could be construed as such) at dinner in front of the Stone's gay deaf son Thad (Tyrone Giordano), who's about to adopt a child with his African-American lover, Patrick (Brian White).

"I am not a completely terrible person," Meredith wails, before moving out to a nearby lodge and calling for reinforcements — her sister Julie (a radiant Claire Danes). Who, of course, is everything the Stones approve of — no designer shoes and a job approving arts grants.

The movie makes us uncomfortable by having this supposedly warm, welcoming, endlessly tolerant family take such an instant dislike to Meredith. Sure, she barks orders into her cell phone while shopping with Everett and, OK, when a random granddaughter ruins a pair of her shoes, Meredith "reassures" the little girl, by saying she thinks she has another pair to match that outfit. But social ineptness isn't enough to explain why the Stone embark on such a constant and merciless game of get-the-guest — though, later on, a Sad Family Secret is offered as a partial explanation.

Things happen too TV-quick. The mix-and-match romantic attachments. The Stones sudden (albeit not unexpected) turnaround. The plot is motored more by convenience than credible character behavior and for much of the time, the cockles of our hearts remain unwarmed.

However, "The Family Stone" does manage a modicum of Christmas cheer, thanks, mostly to its irresistible ensemble cast. Parker deftly inverts her Carrie Bradshaw persona from "Sex and the City," hanging on to the self-consciousness and the designer fetishes, but making them irritating.

As the accepting Ben, Wilson is better than he's ever been (a back-handed compliment, but a compliment, nonetheless). Mulroney continues to prove his worth as an engaging leading man, and Nelson is a gentle huggy-bear father. Given vastly different characters, McAdams and Danes are equally enchanting.

And then there's Keaton. Beautiful, funny, touching and even a bit difficult, she gives an incandescent performance that holds everything together. And thankfully, makes everything better.