The Family Stone vs Addams Family Values

Meredith Morton is one of those people who will introduce herself, first name and last, to people who are already familiar with her and do not need the last name. She’s meeting possible in-laws who would love to embrace her, and here she is, practically handing out business cards.

I’m not sure what Meredith does for a living. It’s very important and stressful and I’m sure it inspires much in the way of migraines and lattes and spreadsheets. And how do I know this? Because I’ve been to the movies, and I know that if Meredith has a severe hairstyle, she must be a cold bitch who needs to literally let her hair down, and if she has a cell-phone, well she’s obviously a mechanical workaholic who needs to stop and smell the roses. Meredith does indeed have a very specific, very tidy hairstyle, and she does indeed have a cell-phone she can’t stay off of. And everyone hates her.

I sort of like her. First of all, if she kicks so much ass at her pretend movie job, then good for her. It’s not like anybody’s going to make a movie with a warm-hearted homemaker (because they’re somehow portrayed as even more cold and cutthroat than women who work outside the home), so she might as well have a job and be good at it. Secondly, Meredith is played by Sarah Jessica Parker, one of the most consistently quirky and original presences in movies today. Parker was in danger of being one of those actors trapped in a sitcom persona; it’s probably hard for some to see her as anything other than her TV character. My memories of Ed Wood, L.A. Story and Miami Rhapsody are fresh enough that I’m still up for viewing her as a Parker Posey-style outsider, which suits her well in The Family Stone. Meredith is the guest of Everett Stone, her snooze of a boyfriend played by Dermot Mulroney. Everett has a job in the same field as Meredith (I believe), but he’s not obsessed with his work like she is, so I think it’s fun to pretend that it’s because he’s not very good at it. No one ever suggests that Everett is the problem, even though the rest of his family is way happening and he just sort of sits there, either whining, sulking, or in one upsetting scene, bullying his sister. (It’s not Mulroney’s fault, probably. I think the point is that he can’t be his true self or come alive or whatever as long as he’s with that evil, job-having Meredith).

Anyway, Meredith makes an awful first impression on the Stones (which is shockingly well-cast for a movie like this: Craig T. Nelson, Diane Keaton, Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Tyrone Giordano and Elizabeth Reaser), and to relieve the situation a bit, she moves to a local inn for the weekend, and brings her hot younger sister into the equation (anyone figured out a huge part of the plot yet?)

Claire Danes plays Meredith’s sister; Meredith invites her to the Stones’ for moral support. She’s sort of pushed to one side, but I was glad to see her. First of all, Danes becomes a little more beguiling with each movie, and she’s mainly here to be lovely and empathetic and is a smashing success at both. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, she serves to humanize Meredith somewhat. If Meredith is capable of having a lovely and empathetic sister, then perhaps she is a human after all, and not something ordered from one of those expensive yet super-efficient catalogs.

The Family Stone isn’t just a movie set around Christmastime, it’s one designed for watching at that time as well. It’s a movie to watch after a big meal. That we know where much of it is headed is actually part of the draw, just like the holiday itself. Will Meredith win over the Stones? Will the evenly matched single characters pair off by the end of the movie? Will there be a tragedy that brings everyone together? Will there be hugging in front of a tree? Yes. What matters more than surprises (and The Family Stone actually has a couple, which is a bonus) is that the actors have chemistry: Keaton and Nelson are great together and with each of their screen children, and while Parker is neither a match for Mulroney as a mate or Danes as a sibling, she lights up the screen when she’s around a funny Luke Wilson, as the stoner Stone, Ben. Plus, the Stones have a really nice house, one that provides excellent soft lighting for pivotal emotional revelations, and one that is too big and too small in all the right places. And it should be said that doctored photos in movies nearly always look laughably fake, but in The Family Stone, there is a fake picture of Diane Keaton as the younger Sybil Stone, and not only is it beautiful, it looks completely authentic. It’s a small touch, but by the time it’s revealed, anyone watching The Family Stone will have realized that the small touches it provides are what the Stones, and their viewers, having been surviving off of for a while now.

I suppose the thing that’s expected of me at this point is to pair something frothy and light with something dark and edgy, like one movie might cure the other or something. It’s Christmas. What did you expect me to recommend, Dancer in the Dark? You’ll probably want a drink or more dessert after The Family Stone, but around, say the 28^th, why not venture back out and pick up Addams Family Values. If The Family Stone is a lightly spiked eggnog, Addams Family Values is a flaming fruit cake on your neighbor's front porch.

The Addams Family is just as loving and protective of their own as the Stones, and like the family Stone, they’ve got an outsider in their mix, this one a nanny played by the queen of whatever it is exactly that she does, Joan Cusack. Cusack is always so strange and funny; eventually she’s going to be paired with Christopher Walken and the world will never be the same. That theme would seem to be why I’ve picked the sequel instead of the original Addams Family, but it’s really because I just think this one is better. The first Addams Family was more about the casting and costumes. It was fun just to see how certain things would be presented, and once they were, I had forgotten to check and see if they were funny or not. Addams Family Values has moments of true hilarity though, and once the kids go to camp, it becomes more sinister and rude, and thus even funnier. The movie pretty much belongs to Wednesday Addams, played by a creepy and dead-panned way beyond her years Christina Ricci. Wednesday is miserable at camp, until she realizes she can take it over, and turns the Thanksgiving pageant into a Pilgrim massacre the South Park guys wish they’d thought of first. Wednesday also has to vanquish a crew of Mean Girls, which she does with hooded eyes and that vicious monotone. She’s going to kill them, and not with kindness.

The second Addams is even more of a design marvel than the first, bringing the world of the original strips to life without bogarting too much of Tim Burton’s goth aesthetic (which was in full gear in 1993). Angelica Huston and Raoul Julia were probably too talented for their roles, which is part of the fun; they throw themselves into their scenes without ego or pretense, by which I mean complete ego and pretense, and they rock. They’d love Meredith, with her severe hairstyle, black clothing and stiff hugs. If you’ve seen Addams Family Values prior to watching The Family Stone, you might recognize Meredith’s gradual makeover as similar to the one inflicted upon poor Wednesday at camp. She’s being programmed, and she doesn’t even know it. Be afraid, Meredith. Be very afraid.

The Family Stone: B
Addams Family Values: B+