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The Family Stone

The Family Stone

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 2005

An uptight, conservative businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life.

Movie details

The Family Stone

“Feel The Love”

2005 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 43m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

An uptight, conservative businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Family Stone?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Make the Yuletide Gay

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The holidays get overly festive as Olaf "Gunn" Gunnunderson, an out-and-proud gay college student, crawls back into the closet to survive the holidays with his parents. But when his boyfriend, Nathan, shows up at their doorstep unannounced, Gunn must put on a charade to keep the relationship a secret. With pressure mounting from all sides, will Gunn come out before the truth does?

Father of the Bride

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Picture a Perfect Christmas

Picture a Perfect Christmas

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An extreme-sports photographer returns home for the holiday to take care of her grandmother, only to have a neighbor grab her attention as he needs assistance watching his young nephew.

A California Christmas

A California Christmas

Comedy · 2020

With his carefree lifestyle on the line, a wealthy charmer poses as a ranch hand to get a hardworking farmer to sell her family’s land before Christmas.

Jingle Bell Princess

Jingle Bell Princess

TV Movie · 2021

An actual princess has some mechanical issues and is temporarily grounded. Does she have time for a lobster roll? It is Christmas time in Maine which means snow, quaint scenery, and lots of Christmas lights near the ocean. With the crew distracted attending to the repair, Princess Amelia deplanes to walk through a magical Christmas tree lot near the airport perimeter.

A California Christmas: City Lights

A California Christmas: City Lights

Romance · 2021

Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.

Peace, Love & Misunderstanding

Peace, Love & Misunderstanding

Comedy · 2011

A conservative lawyer named Diane takes her two teenage children Jake and Zoe to meet their estranged, hippie grandmother in Woodstock after her husband asks for a divorce.

Happiest Season

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Romance · 2020

A young woman's plans to propose to her girlfriend while at her family's annual holiday party are upended when she discovers her partner hasn't yet come out to her conservative parents.

While You Were Sleeping

While You Were Sleeping

Romance · 1995

A transit worker pulls commuter Peter off railway tracks after he's mugged, but—while he's in a coma—his family mistakenly thinks she's Peter's fiancée, and she doesn't correct them. Things get more complicated when she falls for his brother, who's not quite sure that she's who she claims to be.

Love Hard

Love Hard

Comedy · 2021

An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for Christmas, only to discover that she's been catfished. But the object of her affection actually lives in the same town, and the guy who duped her offers to set them up if she pretends to be his own girlfriend for the holidays.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Thomas Bezucha

Written by

Thomas Bezucha

Dermot Mulroney

Dermot Mulroney

Everett Stone

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker

Meredith Morton

Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton

Sybil Stone

Luke Wilson

Luke Wilson

Ben Stone

Claire Danes

Claire Danes

Julie Morton

Rachel McAdams

Rachel McAdams

Amy Stone

Craig T. Nelson

Craig T. Nelson

Kelly Stone

Court is in session

Put The Family Stone on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.