Bad Bad Movies That Deserve Analysis

Family Stone is one.

Movies today have characters who are deaf, in interracial marriages, in gay marriages, or adopting kids. But to cram all these characteristics into one character is to test us.

If this combination was a sly joke by the filmmakers, I salute them and the laugh they must have had at all the earnest Hugh Grant movies with ill and disabled characters blended in (deaf brother in 4 Weddings, crippled ex-girlfriend in Notting Hill, I'm sure there are more).

If the makers of Family Stone had been there when James Watt said "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple," they would have replied "I'm in, and I'll raise you a hermaphroditic lesbian."

One more cloying feature: they show us Diane Keaton's cancer-scarred chest during a tender lovemaking scene with the great Craig T. Nelson. That was when I started rooting for her death.
Counter: Craig T Nelson smokes marijuana with no ill effects. So does Luke Wilson, I think? Marijuana is a force for good?

Finales:

1. The James Watt quote would be a great group blog title. But it works only if they satisfy the list completely or not at all.

2. Note that I did not mention Sarah Jessica Parker. I'm holding back because like Rocky I don't want to go back to southpaw--it's too easy. And she's strangely perfect in her role.

3. For more successful integrations of cripples, see the Farrelly Bros. Examples include Cameron Diaz's retarded brother Warren and the prick brother of the boss in Something About Mary. It's easier to do in all-out comedies where they can be victims and asses like everyone else, hard to do in romantic comedies and even harder in melodramas. Imagine if the deaf gay brother in Family Stone had been domineering and rude to his husband in front of the family.