The Family Stone (2005)

Brief: Eldest son Everett (Dermot Mulroney) brings his tightly-wound, illiberal girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home for Christmas to meet his liberal New England brood, from sly hipster parents Sybil (Diane Keaton) and Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), to very pregnant Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser) whose husband is away on business, to stoner documentary film editor Ben (Luke Wilson), to deaf Thad (Tyrone Giordano) and his husband Patrick (Brian White), to the sassy opposite of Meredith, Amy (Rachel McAdams). Meredith is tormented by the Stones to the point where she calls in her sister, Julie (Claire Danes), as backup.

Let it henceforth be known that Carrie was always my least favourite of the Sex and the City quartet for many a reason, the chief being that Carrie was unfortunately plagued by the same obstacle that all protagonists face: she was a little miss me-ffet. Everything was always about Carrie. There exists a single episode which I can point to where she actually lets someone else’s problems come first: Miranda’s mother’s funeral. Sure, she was there for Samantha through her cancer, but more often than not, Carrie had a knack for being the most selfish, unsupportive friend imaginable. When it comes right down to it, I’d rather have Samantha as a friend: she was the least judgemental of all of them.

Of course, it’s not like that’s something I can hold against SJP specifically. She didn’t write Carrie that way, and, given her near-perfect appearance in public each and every time she steps out of the house, she didn’t necessarily dress Carrie that way either. But I did hold it against her. I did, I did, I did. Her screeching howler-monkey ways were enough to get me to want to avoid her presence in everything other than Footloose and State and Main.

Naturally, all this set up could only mean one thing: I kind of love SJP now. Meredith may have said some of the most heinous things I have ever heard, and she may justly deserved the smack down she politely got from Kelly and then more cruelly got from Sybil, but, by the time she has her hilarious drunken fest in a local bar, you just love her. She keeps sabotaging herself because she just doesn’t know any better (not that her boyfriend helps her out – seriously, you wouldn’t teach her how to sign even something as simple as “Hello”?). This lady is a million light years away from Carrie, and SJP provides a wonderful turn as an uptight WASP in the face of the original uptight WASP: Diane Keaton.

Sybil’s motivations for her actions are slowly revealed, so you can understand her choices, unlike her insufferable daughter Amy, who makes Meredith’s life hell for no apparent reason. Nothing at all redeems Amy in this movie. McAdams doesn’t seem to care, which is well enough when she’s surrounded by a cast of this calibre.

Sure, after the three-hankie subplot, everything’s wrapped up with a holiday bow so neat that you practically write it yourself. But that’s what you want from a Christmas movie, isn’t it? Conventionalities aside, I’ve got a bit of a crush on Thomas Bezucha (writer/director) now. B+

P.S. Goodbye, John Spencer. The show shouldn’t go on without you.

P.P.S. My fellow audience members in Cinema 3 continue to astound me. The chances of them being the same people every time are slim to none, but they always managed to be the most kind-hearted, generous, and wondrously vocal people around.