| CRUEL YULE : Thomas Bezucha's 'The Family Stone' [6/10] |
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| Saturday, 24 December 2005 | |
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Writer-director Bezucha boasts a decidedly unorthodox background for someone entrusted with a major-studio Christmas release: he spent over a decade as as an executive at Ralph Lauren, then in 2000 made a mild splash with his acclaimed but little-seen debut feature, Big Eden. So it's a little disappointing that The Family Stone - a mildly spiky chronicle of an awkward holiday-season get-together - should adhere so closely to Hollywood's usual run of quirky, family-based, dark-tinged comedies. Audiences expecting an indie-flavoured, edgy affair in the Pieces of April mould should look elsewhere: this is a slickly-executed, handsomely-mounted, mainstream-oriented work made with at least one eye on Oscar nominations. The films is very much an actor's piece, with Diane Keaton first among equals in the Oscar-bait role of Sibyl Stone - a warm-hearted, slightly bohemian mother-of-five, suffering from an illness which is terminal, unspecified, and (at least over the two-day span of the movie's chronology) conveniently without symptoms. It seems safe to guess from this evidence that Bezucha is a long-time, die-hard fan of Keaton's: The Family Stone is something of a love-letter to the veteran actress, although thankfully not to the detriment of her fellow ensemble-players. These include: Craig T Nelson, making the most of his Incredibles 'exposure' as Sibyl's gruff/sympathetic husband Kelly; fast-rising star Rachel McAdams, who gets most of the tartest lines as Sibyl's snipy daughter Amy; and (top-billed) Sarah Jessica Parker as Meredith, a Wall Street highflyer recently engaged to Sibyl's eldest son Everett (Dermot Mulroney). Visiting her prospective in-laws for the first time - in their sprawling Massachussetts mini-mansion - the uptight Meredith is desperate to make a positive impression. A little too desperate, as it turns out... Sibyl's impending demise raises the grim possibility that we're going to be engulfed in a third act of teary, treacly mush. But it's to Bezucha's credit that he keeps the schmaltz pretty firmly in check, instead focussing on the friction caused by square peg Meredith's painful attempts to fit into the Stone's roundish holes. He copes pretty well with a sprawling cast, with Clare Danes joining in the "fun" around halfway as Meredith's more laid-back sister Julie and All the Real Girls' Paul Schneider another welcome presence as an ambulance driver who's long carried a torch for Amy. There are some moments of low-comedy farce when one particularly complicated Christmas breakfast dish (over which Meredith has anxiously toiled) ends up splatted all over the kitchen floor - with predictably slapstick consequences - and these feel as though they've wandered in from a rather more raucous holiday-season entertainment (i.e. Cheaper by the Dozen 2). But - like the best Xmas visitors - the picture certainly doesn't outstay its welcome, and Bezucha manages to wraps up all the messy relationships and loose ends with coda that's pat and sentimental, but restrained and surprisingly satisfying. No danger to King Kong as this year's Christmas cracker, then, but far from the Producers-grade turkey you'd expect from certain sniffy British critics. Neil Young 24th December, 2005 THE FAMILY STONE : [6/10] : USA 2005 : Thomas BEZUCHA : 103 mins (BBFC timing)seen at Odeon cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), 21st December 2005 - public show |
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