I missed The Family Stone in theaters but it was not on purpose, scheduling just caused me to miss it, and while I am glad I finally saw it I am baffled as to why Fox would release a Christmas film in May. I know we are trying to close the DVD windows to take advantage of cinematic buzz, but this is just silly. I love Christmas movies, and this is a good one, but it has nowhere near the effect it could have had had it been 32 degrees outside and Christmas lights lining the streets. Nevertheless, the fact that it is being released in May is not exactly up for review here and if I went on too long on that you might stop reading, and I can't have that. So, the movie... on to it...

The film stars Sarah Jessica Parker as Meredith Morton and this uptight and annoying broad has somehow managed to lockdown a man and the relationship is heading for marriage, but not before she heads to his family's house for the holidays. The man in question here is Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) and he isn't, by any means, as uptight as Meredith, but he is a bit of a straight arrow and as you have probably suspected the welcome wagon isn't exactly enamored upon Meredith's arrival as she is placed under the microscope and examined all the way down to her annoying little throat clearing habit.

Many factors are at play during this Christmas season and I am not going to reveal or ruin any of them for you here, but just suffice to say that this film has a healthy dose of drama mixed in with some excellent laughs. I wouldn't be surprised if the little lady sheds a tear and even some of you softer gentlemen in the crowd (I believe you are now called metrosexuals) may give a little boo-hoo.

Despite my disliking of Sarah Jessica Parker, she along with the rest of the cast turn in excellent performances, and I just can't get enough of Rachel McAdams, this chick is altogether gorgeous and talented. On top of that, the mixture of touchy subjects, sexual tension and emotional instability in this film make it an instant favorite.

The DVD is a mixture of good and bad as there are two commentaries, a handful of deleted scenes, a gag reel and a fair amount of featurettes to keep you busy.

Of the commentaries it really depends on your tolerance level. One of them is with Mulroney and Parker and if Sarah Jessica isn't drunk in this one I would hate to imagine what life in the Parker / Broderick house is like because this woman is a giggle a minute. The other commentary is with writer/director Thomas Bezucha, producer Michael London, editor Jeffrey Ford and production designer Jane Ann Stewart and as you can most likely tell from just the names involved it is much more serious. For me I don't need serious when it comes to a film like this so despite Parker's insanity I found her commentary to be more entertaining, but if I had the choice I would have listened to neither.

The deleted scenes are okay, the gag reel is satisfactory and the featurettes are pretty much standard. The final feature is a batch of Family Stone recipes and if anyone out there actually makes these you have to let me know because I don't see many people getting their recipes from the Family Stone DVD.

Overall I would definitely recommend this DVD as a buy for anyone out there that is in to this kind of thing. It is by no means as good as Love Actually (NO MEANS), but it is along the same lines as far as genre goes. There should be plenty of you out there excited to see it and you should enjoy it over and over, most likely closer to December 25th than May 2nd.