Hollywood always delivers that one festive/tearjerky holiday film. This year it’s about a family stone – a mother’s heirloom engagement ring intended to go to the wrong daughter-in-law-to-be, Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker). If we can see past Parker’s forever memorable Carrie Bradshaw “Sex and the City” role and imagine, just for once, she can be a bitchy career-driven ice princess, then we’re off to a good start. And start it does, when her fiancee Everett (Dermot Mulroney) brings her home to meet the parents (Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson), brother Ben (Luke Wilson) the laid back bros, and Amy (Rachel McAdams) the rebel sister from hell. The story opens with the family doing a number on Meredith’s self-confidence, that doesn’t get any better with the arrival of her sister (Claire Danes). What begins as an over-the-top comedy with overdone acting, slows down to a (get out the tissues) story of unexpected love, loss and upsets, as it turns dramedy. Two tiaras.
