The Family Stone

Meredith Morton & Everett Stone are a socialite couple in Manhattan, but when Everett takes Meredith home for Christmas she clashes with his family so badly that Meredith refuses to stay at the house and calls her sister Julie in to help her out. While Everett tries to convince his mother to give him his grandmothers engagement ring so he can propose to Meredith the rest of the family becomes more and more sure that Everett & Meredith should not get married.

The Family Stone is a film I really wanted to see because of the cast. There are great actors littered throughout this film and all of them are actors that I enjoy greatly. However, I was very disappointed in The Family Stone.

While watching The Family Stone I got the impression that the film thought it was a quirky comedy with a slightly dark underlining. However, I almost didn’t get through more than half an hour of The Family Stone because the film is downright angry and depressing. These characters are really horrible people. Without any explanation more than one or two lines of dialogue you find out one character dislikes Meredith and the rest of the Stone family (who has never met her) immediately begins to hate on her. After about half a movie of being a really boring person Meredith turns out to be downright insulting and continues to say really horrible things to members of the family or scream at people. Not a single character in this film is developed or likeable. The only reason I watched the entire film is because I felt the need to see if possible the ending redeemed the film. It doesn’t.

The ending of the film is almost worse than the rest of the film. It’s a complete and total cop out. Again the writing and direction leave much to be desired. Rather than finding a way to motivate all of our characters into their conclusion a few lines of dialogue are delivered about couples breaking up, other couples share longing looks and then we flash to the next Christmas where all the issues are magically resolved and we’re never told how or why.

No family real or fictional can solve the kind of problems the Stone family had that Christmas in the course of twelve months. It’s just not possible, especially after the rest of the film built up nothing but an intense hatred for Meredith.

I know I’ve probably insulted a ton of people that absolutely adore this holiday movie and think I’m completely wrong in my analysis. To those I say this: can you tell me why these characters deserved an hour and half of my time?

Director & Writer: Thomas Bezucha
Julie Morton: Claire Danes
Sybil Stone: Diane Keaton
Amy Stone: Rachel McAdams
Everett Stone: Dermot Mulroney
Kelly Stone: Craig T. Nelson
Meredith Morton: Sarah Jessica Parker
Ben Stone: Luke Wilson
Thad Stone: Tyrone Giordano
Patrick Thomas: Brian J. White
Susannah Stone Trousdale: Elizabeth Reaser

Meredith: What's so great about you guys?
Sybil: Uh, nothing... it's just that we're all that we've got.

The First Wives Club

I just have to say that I am in love with this movie. I don’t think three leading actresses could have had more chemistry than Diane Keaton, Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn. If they were 20 years younger I’d cast them as the next Charlie’s Angels. These women are seriously the reason that I watch this movie.

I also have to say that The First Wives Club is incredibly well written. The leading actresses are incredibly talented, but if they didn’t have great comedic lines to deliver all that this movie would be is great chemistry between the leads.

Hugh Wilson has not directed much after The First Wives Club but one notable film afterwards is Blast From the Past - another film I love. This tells me that if Wilson directs more comedies they quite possibly might be my cup of tea too.

Elise: You think that because I'm a movie star I don't have feelings. Well you're wrong. I'm an actress. I've got all of them!

The First Wives Club

Part of me wants to be able to say that The First Wives Club is a silly, stupid movie that is really just brain candy – but I can’t. I love this movie; I think it is a genuinely good movie with entertaining and appealing comedy that does not get stale. I will admit that The First Wives Club probably plays better to women, but I am a woman so there’s no problem there.

The First Wives Club is about three women – Brenda, Elise & Annie – all three of whom have been left by their first husbands. They were close in college but let post-college life help grow them apart until their other college friend Cynthia commits suicide on the day that her recently ex-husband gets remarried. The tragedy brings the three women back into each others lives and as they discover that their marital situations are so similar they decide to band together and form the first wives club and be the wives that just won’t take being left standing while their husbands chase their more youthful replacement. Together they dig out the dirt on their exes and make the men rue the day they traded in their first wives.

The reason The First Wives Club works as well as it does is the three lead actresses that helm it – Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler & Diane Keaton. These women are not only phenomenal actresses in their own right but they have a divine chemistry together that really makes their friendship genuine and complete. Goldie is gloriously funny as Elise the actress obsessed with youth and delivers some of my favorite lines in the film; Bette is divine as Brenda the Jewish mother who just wants her son to be happy but tries not to meddle too much; Diane is perfect the compulsive and quirky Annie who is newly adjusting to the news that her college age daughter is a lesbian.

However, the supporting cast in this movie is just as beautifully cast as the main roles you have Maggie Smith, Victor Garber, Marcia Gay Harden, Rob Reiner and more. Everywhere you turn there are actors and entertainment personalities that you see all over television and film. When this movie was put together they spared no chance to put a good recognizable actor in the right role.

I do think that The First Wives Club is a film that can be enjoyed by almost anyone. I also highly recommend it for any girls night in.

Director: Hugh Wilson
Writer: Robert Harling
Brenda Cushman: Bette Midler
Elise Elliot: Goldie Hawn
Annie Paradis: Diane Keaton
Gunilla Garson Goldberg: Maggie Smith
Morton Cushman: Dan Hedaya
Shelly Stewart: Sarah Jessica Parker
Cynthia Swann Griffin: Stockard Channing
Bill Atchison: Victor Garber
Aaron Paradis: Stephen Collins
Phoebe: Elizabeth Berkley
Dr. Rosen: Marcia Gay Harden
Duarto Feliz: Bronson Pinchot
Brett Artounian: Timothy Olyphant

Brenda: My Morty becomes this big shot on T.V... He was selling electronics, right? On our 20th wedding anniversary it hits midlife crisis major. He starts working out, he, he grows a moustache, he gets an earring. I said, "Morty, Morty, what are you? A pirate? what's next? A parrot?" And all of a sudden I'm a big drag. I'm holding him back because I won't go rollerblading.