Monday, September 11, 2006

The Family Stone (2005)

This is possibly the most emotionally painful movie I have ever watched. Ugh. How did I dislike this movie? Let me count the ways.

1. I thought I was going to like it at first. I really did. It was really fascinating for the first fifteen or twenty minutes, and then I started realizing that it wasn't going anywhere. So, first off, I'm disappointed in them for giving me something good and then messing with it and making it silly.

2. I really have a bone to pick with those "for people to love you, you have to lose your inhibitions" stories. For me, it entirely destroyed the entire point of that story when it was revealed that he didn't actually love her. "Sure, we'll love you for who you are... Oh, except if you are really nervous and try too hard. Then you have to be like us. Adopt OUR flaws." Grawr.

3. By the time I got to the end, the romantic switches were laughable. Or would have been laughable if they weren't so pathetic. I think any two people on the verge of being engaged who break up with each other and then immediately, THAT SAME DAY, go out and sleep with/ask out their former almost-fiancee's sibling.... Man. There are some deep issues there I'm not even going to get into. That's not a happy ending. That's ridiculous.

And 4. The most important one. I could have forgiven all these other bits of nonsense if the characters had been either remotely likeable OR believable. But almost none of the characters were given enough depth, and the few who were, were not pleasant people.

I'm going to be generous, however, and rate it 1 star instead of half a star, because I did genuinely like the first fifteen minutes.

Oh. I forgot to mention they used Meet Me In St. Louis in there, which, although it was a musical, was a horrible musical with equally random plot points. That also scores against it.

Edit after reading a few reviews: This was a comedy? Wow. Could've fooled me.

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