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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The Family Stone should have been a glittering holiday bauble along the lines of the irresistible Love Actually. Instead, Bezucha stuffs into our stockings what he thinks is good for us. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Some will find it touching, some will be too weary of the plot contrivances and the smug Stone family to care. Read more
Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: The Family Stone aims to please, and lands precisely on so-so. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: I love it dearly. I have seen it twice. I will see it again. If there is any hope for the longevity of movies, it will become an annual holiday classic. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: I can't deny the incidental pleasures of watching these talented players giving it their all, even in such a misguided project. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: A film that is staggeringly accurate, sometimes painfully accurate, in capturing the dynamic of a smart, funny, tightly knit family unit. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The plot is motored more by convenience than credible character behavior and for much of the time, the cockles of our hearts remain unwarmed. Read more
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: As a comedy, The Family Stone is more easy listening than rock-and-roll, but some of the performances (notably from McAdams and Nelson) are comfortable and affecting. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The movie is a holiday romantic comedy that wants to put the holiday romantic comedy out of business. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Hollywood is always making family comedies, but they are rarely about real families: relations who are as difficult as they are wonderful, people who both love and irritate the heck out of each other. Families like The Family Stone. Read more
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: It plays almost like Terms of Endearment crossed with the feel-good yule romance Love Actually. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Could we please declare a moratorium on funny-sad movies about dysfunctional families, especially families that come together for the holidays? Read more
Michael Booth, Denver Post: Suddenly we're wiping away tears, glancing around to make sure no one noticed we had fallen for this steaming cup of melodrama. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: What was supposed to be a jewel turns out to be a simple Christmas trinket. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: What's striking and, to my bloodshot eye, welcome about this year's edition, The Family Stone, is the rather chic urbanity with which writer-director Thomas Bezucha serves up the old genre standby. Read more
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: This is pleasing holiday fare that may stay with you through the first months of 2006. Read more
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: A potentially interesting tale flailing haplessly in the quicksand of holiday-movie formula, this domestic dramedy from writer-director Thomas Bezucha is most potently read in reverse of its intentions. Read more
Gene Seymour, Newsday: Almost everything about The Family Stone is so schematic and prefabricated that it should come with its own easy-to-follow blueprint. Read more
Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Good acting only goes so far to salvage a bad script. Read more
Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: A machine-tooled entertainment that's as fake and flimsy as a plastic Christmas tree. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's movie comfort food - - a few good laughs, a few winks of recognition, a few tears. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's worth two hours for those who appreciate this kind of workmanlike, low-risk drama. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The Family Stone sorts out its characters admirably, depends on typecasting to help establish its characters more quickly, and finds a winding path between happy and sad secrets. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: This is a family, and a movie, where everyone talks at once -- and more often than you'd think, its characters actually come up with something worth saying. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A feel-bad holiday film about a repellent family, with a milquetoast dad and a smug, devious harpy of a mom. Read more
David Edelstein, Slate: There are cringe-worthy passages and an overly sentimental structure (everyone pairs up so very tidily), but the performances are delightful, and the picture comes together. Read more
Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The movie's warmth is contagious. Too bad its humor isn't. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: So check your disbelief at the door, bring along a mini-packet of Kleenex, and brace yourself for Two-Ply and the Family Stone. Read more
Susan Walker, Toronto Star: The Family Stone is a lot slyer than you might expect. Read more
Dennis Lim, Village Voice: It's hard to fathom why anyone would voluntarily endure a holiday family reunion movie (hereafter HFRM) -- a genre devised solely to demonstrate how grotesque and how heartwarming families can be. Read more
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: There are many ways to define the shrieking awfulness of The Family Stone, from the general lack of wit to the cheap exploitation of cancer to its casual cruelty. Read more