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Rating: We Italians should stop translating film titles. It's not our thing. I say this because calling this film "La neve nel cuore" [The Snow in the Heart] means misleading a potential viewer, excuse the rhyme. Anyone confronted with a trailer for a film featuring Diane Keaton with such a highsounding-radical-chic title would anticipate one of those heart-wrenching, well-crafted, introspective family dramas; in short, a brilliant film (Indeed). Add to this that the director is the highly praised Thomas Bezucha, who amazed with his debut feature "Big Eden" the American and European critics, and the damage is done.
In reality, the film is titled "The Family Stone" and expectations already decline. In fact, it's not a drama but a comedy with a deeply melancholic vein but never sad. Despite being set during the Christmas period, this film is not the usual cinematic panettone. The point I'm getting at is as follows: this film clearly follows the directives of family comedy and does not shine for schematic originality but boasts a respectable cast and some amusing twists.
Having shed the skimpy tops and erotic-intellectual conversations of "Sex and the City," Sarah Jessica Parker becomes Meredith, a career woman with a fiancé in tow (Dermot Mulroney aka Everett). In anticipation of their marriage, Everett takes her to meet his family in New Jersey, but the situation is less than ideal. A matriarchal Diane Keaton (Sibyl), along with her husband Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) and their children Ben (Luke Wilson), Amy (Rachel McAdams), Thad (Tyrone Giordano), Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), fails to establish a good relationship with the future daughter-in-law. The latter calls upon her sister Julie (Claire Danes) for help, but instead of harmonizing tense relations, her arrival complicates matters. The resolution sees Everett leaving Meredith to marry Julie.
Beyond the plot which, as previously stated, is certainly not the defining element of the film, what makes it interesting is surely the psychological profile of the characters and the way it changes precisely through their interactions. Initially, the Stone family is portrayed as an unconventional family from a superficial viewpoint, as it is impossible not to be struck by the exorbitant number of children and stepchildren residing in one house under the same surname, and because they all have a peculiar drive towards self-assertion above everything and everyone: Sibyl prides herself on nonconformism and detachment from any kind of narrow-minded traditionalism, which she openly demonstrates by welcoming her gay son's partner of color into the home. Amy has a keenly critical eye and a penchant for ruthless criticism, not unlike Claudia Vinciguerra, and they all feel united and strong within this nucleus. However, the disposition they initially manifest is compromised by Meredith's arrival, whom everyone judges as the classic city woman too caught up in her work and incapable of escaping the system, falling into a stereotype despite their supposed nobility of character. Everyone except Ben, who ends up marrying Meredith.
However, Bezucha is not Dostoevsky, and indeed in the realm of characters it's easy to spot glaring flaws, first of all the desire to make all the characters the protagonists of the story, but it's impossible and so there's a bit of improvisation by carving out targeted scenes for each of them (Too little proportionally to the goal) like the pointless presence of Susannah, the eldest daughter pregnant with a second child who is filmed in tears in front of the television while watching a very sad Christmas musical whose lyrics are a clear reference to their condition (Sibyl is ill, it will be the last year she spends with her family and from the TV, the musical sings words I can't quite remember, but the meaning was surely "...One day we will all meet again, be patient, for now have a Merry Christmas!") or the flash infatuation between Julie and Everett. It also exaggerates a bit with its goodwill, exploiting a mix of diversity that is far from realistic and instead seems constructed at a table. This is the case of Thad, homosexual, deaf, and his partner is of color. Personally, I would have added a bit of a hump, just in case.
"La neve nel cuore" is not an exceptional film but certainly enjoyable. Keaton is always at her best, and the rest of the cast seems at ease, so no one truly disappoints, thus earning it a 3 in the general euphoria of the holidays. Don't expect to find great cinema, let's be clear, but should you wish to spend some time in a light-hearted way, without watching garbage, in the warmth of a blanket indulging with a hefty slice of Pandoro, while it snows outside, then this is for you.
Advance Merry Christmas.
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