Jangle all the way

There's at least one every festive season: a film about an American family Christmas that goes badly wrong. This one, however, takes the biscuit for sheer silliness.

Meredith, a deeply neurotic New Yorker (Sarah Jessica Parker), is taken home by her boyfriend (Dermot Mulroney) to be introduced to his well-lined New England family (you know, the sort who never have a hair out of place and dress ever so well at all times).

All sorts of upsets follow as the family settles down to a nice, nagging holiday, kicking off with a fearful fuss during the pre-Christmas dinner when a deaf brother and his black boyfriend, about to adopt a baby, are upended by her references to the gay lifestyle.

It is difficult to believe that Thomas Bezucha, the writer and director, was actually allowed to put all this first on paper, and then on the screen. But he was, and the result makes you want to strangle the lot of them.

The Family Stone
Cert: certPG