The Family Stone (2005)

Now here's a film that is a great heart-warming holiday movie! I was basically forced into watching this by my roommate, but was pretty amazed by how not terrible it was. This movie is about a family gathering for Christmas and the problems that they experience when one of the sons (Everett, played by Dermot Mulroney) brings home the woman he wants to marry (Meredith, played by Sarah Jessica Parker). Throughout the film everybody seems to discover more about who they are, and who their family members are through a series of slightly hilarious puns (but also some not-so-hilarious ones that really put a damper on things). Different hook up by the end of the movie and everybody is happy!
The only thing that I didn't like about this movie was the fact that it was incredibly, boringly, predictable. It's very easy to plan out the entire movie in your head before anything of significance happens. However, I feel that this was a very appropriate feeling for this movie and that this wasn't significant to the overall meaning of the movie, that being love your family and those close the them. It feels to me as if the director (Thomas Bezucha) was trying to make a movie that cut as close to the heart as possible and show that not all good movies have to have intense plot twists. Overall I enjoyed this movie (and enjoyed Rachel McAdams who is HOT). Take it or leave it, "The Family Stone" gets a 4/5.