The holiday season is always inundated with new releases — big-budget spectacles and smaller indies vying both for your attendance and the tiny attention spans of Motion Picture Academy members — but usually inside the stockings all hung with care is a film that fits in the middle and deserves to be seen.  The Family Stone is 2005’s holiday “happy” — a well-crafted film that doesn’t hit you over the head with visual effects a la King Kong or try to nip at social norms like Brokeback Mountain.  It’s just a fun film to enjoy in the moment before moving on to fulfilling your New Year’s resolutions.

Though it has been out several weeks and overshadowed by the other big films of the season, this funny but surprisingly touching dysfunctional family dramedy deserves a viewing now that the holiday season has come and gone.  The Family Stone revolves around the Stones’ Christmas holiday in a tony Westchester County suburb as stalwart sibling Everett (Durmot Mulroney) brings home his intended fiancée Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) to meet the family even though he knows that they will find her rather waspish nature difficult to handle.  What he doesn’t know is that his sister Amy (Rachel McAdams), who has already met Meredith, has painted a rather unflattering picture of her to parents Kelly and Sybil (Craig T. Nelson & Diane Keaton) and the rest of her family, which includes a deaf, gay brother (Tyrone Giodarno) and his African-American partner (Brian J. White).  The fish out of stormy water is the primary plot element and source of most of the humor, but as the film progresses, it becomes obvious that everyone in the family has some kind of quirk or issue that equals that of Meredith and makes the audience feel very much at home.

When Meredith’s easy-going sister Julie (Claire Danes) arrives to help cope with the desperate situation, her self-assuredness and sanity is like a dose of strong medicine that forces a recovery for a family that didn’t realize they needed help.  The Family Stone graciously balances serious, emotional family dynamics with the almost farce-like humor, allowing the audience to experience empathy for all of the characters in the end, even Meredith, because to most of us, our own families aren’t much saner than the Stones — and are probably far worse.

As for the cast Diane Keaton stands out as the post-sixties open-minded but stubborn matriarch who only wants her kids to have happy lives.  The underrated Craig T. Nelson has the difficult task of being ringmaster when he himself must battle his own fears while masking it all from his kids.  Sarah Jessica Parker does her best Wall Street careerwoman impression but shines even more when slacker brother Ben (Luke Wilson) melts away her frozen veneer.  The best performance goes to Rachel McAdams whose acerbic Amy is out to defrock her brother’s fiancée at all costs only because she knows in her heart Meredith isn’t the girl for him.  The rest of the cast excels in their own way, giving their characters a full life even with less screen time.

The Family Stone may not win during this year’s award season, but it’s a fun film that will stave off the winter blues.  So take a break from your own family’s trials and tribulations to experience the enjoyable chaos that is The Family Stone.  In theaters nationwide.

Rich Burlingham