You can't choose your family but

The Family Stone
There are just some films that slip through the cracks. For some reason you just don’t get around to them when they hit the cinema. Often it’s because in the back of your head you think ‘I can wait for the DVD'. The Family Stone was one of these. It jsut wasn't going to get me into the cinema.
I was completely over Sarah Jessica Parker despite having liked her in many previous films (If Lucy Fell is a guilty pleasure I can heartily recommend). But you know what? I got so sick of her being shoved into my line of vision as the style icon of my generation. And it’s not for the obvious reason – namely she probably weighs as much as my right thigh. I’ve got no problem with skinny and I completely get why it is considered beautiful. I consider it beautiful. That’s fine. I like her quirky ugly pretty face and that mass of hair – it’s all good.
But enough already.
You know what – shove me into vintage Yves Saint Laurent and give me a dozen stylists I may scrub up ok too – but it sure as hell won’t make me a style icon. Anyway I digress…
The family Stone just kept bleeping away on my radar and I’ve kind of figured out why. It’s about family. And if there is one genre I really really love it is The Dysfunctional Family. Everyone has one so it stands to reason there have been a few good films made about them. I loved the Family Stone, it surprised me. It made me want to revisit all those other crazy families I’d loved over the years…

Five key elements

1. Very Crazy Parents.
Yes I guess the most obvious choice here would be Robert De Niro’s turn in Meet the Parents but that is almost too obvious. For my money you can’t go past Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum. But I’m also very fond of Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt in Pieces of April which falls into another fave category - the Thanksgiving Film.
The Family Stone takes place at Christmas and the crazy parents are Diane Keaton and Craig T Nelson. They swing between being unlikable to loveable all the way back to complex and heartbreaking in the space of 10 minutes. Beautiful and subtle performances from both of them.

2. The weird/kooky/wayward Sibling
Nothing beats Robert Downey Junior in Home for the Holidays. Nothing. But I tell ya Tom Hulce in Parenthood is the most wayward of them all and it’s his one great role (forget Amadeus – try seeing him tell his dad Jason Robards that his life has turned to hell in a hand basket –great scene).
The Family Stone does have the lovely Luke Wilson who can charm the pants off anyone. Rachel McAdams (whom I really am warming to, is it just me?) as the nasty sister is just so horrible it’s amazing how you still like her by the end of the film.Of course if you want the sexiest sibling go straight to Bill Pullman in While You Were Sleeping. Nothing is hotter than a man that can build a chair.

3. The Love Interest that Brings the Family Together.
See you think that it’s going to be Sarah Jessica Parker but when her sister (Claire Danes all grown up) arrives in town things take a twist. Let’s just say it’s a little unexpected who rescues whom. Dermot Mulroney as the good man is playing to type – see my Best Friends Wedding and you’ll know he can do this material in his sleep. There is one scene in The Family Stone where he’s allowed to get a bit messy. He’s great. Shame he’s so good looking. He’s the new Pierce Brosnan I’m sure of it. Best Love Interest in this cateogory goes to dreamboat Dylan McDermott in Home For the Holidays.

4. The Dinner Table
It all winds up at the dinner table at some point. What better place to really understand the family dynamic? You only have to watch the dinner scene in Hannah and Her Sisters to see the whole film laid out in front of you. For the greatest dinner scene go straight for the undervalued Katie Holmes flick (yes she was good once) Pieces of April. Talk about a Turkey Trial (it gets cooked in three different apartments). in The Family Stone they don’t quite make it to the table – most of the food end up on the floor…

5. The House.
The house is almost always another character in the film and this is true of The Family Stone. Remember those long cold corridors of The Ice Storm? The still life neat as a pin rooms of Ordinary People? My favorite dysfunctional family home was that house in On Golden Pond. Dreamy. Of course in Life as a House it becomes a metaphor for the entire film. The Family Stones abode is chaotic and warm and weird and great – a lot like the Family Stone.

Dysfunctional Family Movies I love:

The Royal Tenenbaums
Home for the Holidays
ParenthoodLife as a House
The Ice Storm
The Safety of Objects
Ordinary People
Beautiful People
The Myth of Finger Prints
The Day Trippers.
Hannah and Her Sisters.
The Substance of Fire.