At The Movies: The Family Stone

As the war on Christmas rages across the nation — at least on Fox News Channel — the holiday remains firmly intact with "The Family Stone," your typical feel-good, feel-bad, feel-good-again family Christmas movie.

Writer-director Thomas Bezucha packs his idyllic, snow-covered New England setting with all the familiar elements of the genre: a big, rambling house filled with lovably eccentric characters; petty sibling misunderstandings and long-held resentments; unlikely romance that blossoms simply for the sake of comedy; and of course, a food mishap.

It is the cinematic equivalent of your batty great-aunt's fruitcake: You make fun of it but you eat a piece of it anyway, because it's traditional.

If not for the performances — notably from Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Luke Wilson — the entire endeavor would be too treacly to tolerate.

Sarah Jessica Parker received a Golden Globe nomination this week for her performance as an uptight New Yorker who clashes with her bohemian, soon-to-be in-laws, but the role is glaringly one-note. Actually, it's two notes: She's buttoned-down and wound-up until one night when she literally lets her hair down and all of a sudden becomes a completely different, easygoing person. Just like that.

Until then, Parker's Meredith Morton says and does the absolute wrong thing at every opportunity. When Everett (Dermot Mulroney), her boyfriend and the eldest Stone child, brings her home to meet his family, she stiffly extends her hand to mom Sybil (Keaton) and states coldly, "Hello, you have a lovely house."

Subsequent conversations with Everett's siblings reveal her to be not just nervous and awkward but closed-minded _ especially over a painful dinner-table discussion about homosexuality in front of Thad (Ty Giordano), the son who's gay, deaf, and has a partner who's black (Brian White).

"What I don't understand is what he sees in her," says Kelly Stone, the family patriarch and a longtime college professor (Craig T. Nelson).

And he's got a point. Bezucha makes Meredith so insufferable, she seems utterly beyond redemption.

The Stones, meanwhile, are consistently fun and free-spirited, with jaunty music accompanying their every yuletide adventure. They're almost too good to be true.

Youngest daughter Amy, the angst-ridden goth chick, is quick-witted and candid. (And the beautiful McAdams shows her chameleonlike abilities again following totally different roles in "Mean Girls," "The Notebook" and "Wedding Crashers.") Proper older sister Susanna (Elizabeth Reaser) is married with a precocious daughter and a baby on the way.

But it's Ben Stone (Wilson), the pothead documentary filmmaker who's visiting from California, who serves as the voice of reason. He cuts through all the absurdity but he also arbitrarily attaches himself to Meredith, his polar opposite.

Lucky her — Ben's the most interesting character in the movie. But it's hard to imagine why he would choose to spend time with this person; their instant bond reeks of plot contrivance.

So does the arrival of Meredith's younger sister, Julie, for moral support. As played by Claire Danes, she shows up and exhibits all the effortless beauty and natural charm that her sister sorely lacks. So guess who finds himself unexpectedly smitten by her?

For every wacky, high-comedy moment, though, each character gets a major tearjerker scene. Many of them are inspired by Sybil, who's — you guessed it — dying, but still maintains her quirky sense of humor.

The quickness with which Bezucha veers between emotions is about as subtle as a snowball to the face, but then again, movies like "The Family Stone" aren't exactly shy about reminding you that laughter and tears can spring from the same source.

"The Family Stone," a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG-13 for some sexual content including dialogue, and drug references. Running time: 104 minutes. Two stars out of four.