The Family Stone

[anne]

scarlet said:

anne said:

I actually took that scene in an entirely different way, and thought it was very good. To me, it illustrated how much an entire family can hurt when one member of the family is identified as being different or less than perfect. SJP was doing a crappy job of trying to explain a viewpoint that was very hurtful to them. It wasn't because she was being un-PC. It was because she was identifying a member of their family as being "not normal" when in the eyes of his family (and him) he WAS normal. I saw all of that as being about the pain they all felt for what he was going through, which was solidified with Diane Keaton throwing something at him to get his attention to reassure him that she loved him.

Oh, I know that's what it was meant to convey, I just think it didn't come off in a way that made me feel for any of the characters. It seemed like, from the get-go, the whole family took great glee in SJP's characters discomforts and idiosyncrasies and did nothing to put her at ease in the least. And when her "perfect" sister got there, it was as if they all (Luke Wilson's character being the exception) took great joy in being so accepting of her -- almost as if to rub Meredith's nose in it.

I agree with that. The way they accepted her sister was so polar opposite of the way they handled her arrival that it seemed rather random and contrived to me. But there was more that seemed real to me in the movie overall than seemed random.

[Deleted]

Well, I just watched this and liked it a lot. But I did not care at all about Everett and Julie. Were we supposed to care? All of a sudden there was too much attention to that stupid part of the story.
I liked SJP. Yeah, I know, sue me. But I really felt sorry for her character and I hated the way they treated her like crap the second she walked into their home and how they loved the sister as soon as she arrived. But I liked Luke Wilson's character and thought that he and SJP had good chemistry.
And I realized that I can't stand Claire Danes. She's bland and annoying at the same time. Looks a lot like Fishstick Paltrow these days.

[Deleted]

I didn't think this was anything great. All the characters grated on me; I didn't get a "family chemistry" type of vibe. Maybe it was the dialogue in the screenplay, but I thought they were just trying too hard to seem like this constantly-scrapping-but-really-close-family-clan.
I couldn't stand Claire Danes and Dermot Mulroney so much that SJP didn't get on my nerves as much as I'd've expected.

[Deleted]

It seemed like, from the get-go, the whole family took great glee in SJP's characters discomforts and idiosyncrasies and did nothing to put her at ease in the least. And when her "perfect" sister got there, it was as if they all (Luke Wilson's character being the exception) took great joy in being so accepting of her -- almost as if to rub Meredith's nose in it.

I agree and that really hurt the movie for me. If the script had let the family be nice to Meredith at first (still be removed and remote but at least bloody polite!) and then have them act meanly towards her after the dinner fiasco, then I could see where they were coming from and where she was coming from and understand the dislike and hurt. As it was, they seemed predispositioned to hate Meredith for no reason. They had made up their minds that she was "wrong" for Everett without ever meeting her? What a horrible family! I would have burned that house down. It was like we were supposed to think their meanness was cute or something. Luke Wilson -as was SJP by simple contrast - was likeable but he was not enough.

[anne]

At some points in the movie, I got the impression that Durmott Mulroney's character was supposed to be the black sheep of the family. Every now and then, he'd have a line that was something like "Let's not do this" that created that impression. So part of me wonders if that wasn't the reason that they were cold to Meredith from the get go - that they were cold to his character, and would be to anyone he brought home. IF that is the case, then it makes a little more sense why the rejected her from the start. But if that's the case, they failed miserably at making his role in the family clear.