The Family Stone
★★★
Every family has that holiday movie—the one everyone claims as tradition, quotes endlessly and watches annually like it's sacred text. For my wife’s family, The Family Stone is that movie. There's even lore behind their theater outing to see it back in 2005, a story that resurfaces every December like clockwork. And yet, somehow, I had never seen it… until now.
With a stacked cast—Diane Keaton! Sarah Jessica Parker! Craig T. Nelson!—and a firm place on many “underrated Christmas classics” lists, I was intrigued. But after finally sitting down with it, I found myself scratching my head more than wiping away tears.
To be fair, The Family Stone isn’t bad. It just feels like a movie that’s trying to be a lot of things—rom-com, holiday tearjerker, dysfunctional family dramedy—and doesn’t quite nail any of them. It dips its toe into each genre pool without committing to a full dive, leaving me emotionally lukewarm. I didn’t laugh much. I didn’t cry. I mostly said, “Wait… what?” a lot.
The biggest issue? The character decisions. They’re just confusing. People fall in and out of love at whiplash speed. Tensions spark and fizzle without much resolution. You get the sense that everyone involved—actors included—could’ve done more if the script had let them breathe.
Honestly, I think this would’ve worked better as a limited series. Today’s streaming era is full of sprawling family dramas where we get time to sit with each character and explore their dynamics. That’s what this film needed. As it stands, it’s like being invited to someone else’s chaotic family Christmas, but only for an hour and forty minutes—just long enough to be confused, but not enough to feel truly invested.
I get why some folks have an emotional attachment to this movie—nostalgia is a powerful thing. But for me, The Family Stone ends up being one of those movies I respect for its intent, but don’t quite understand its lasting holiday glow. It’s got the tinsel and the tears, but not enough warmth to make it onto my seasonal rotation.
