MovieChat Forums > The Family Stone (2005) Discussion > What Happened At the Dinner Table!!???

What Happened At the Dinner Table!!???


Okay, I have been reading over the posts on here, and its like a lot of people are having troubles understanding why everyone acted the way they did.

1. Claire Danes asks what race of baby they would like in a casual easy way. They reply easily back with her, they all love her (as mad obvious by her arrival at the home)

2. SJP seeing how her sister asked such a question and getting along so easily feels a little unnerved and so asks her own slightly inappropriate questions (i say slightly cuz im gay, and i sure as heck wasnt offended. its a real question). although slightly more offensive in the way she asked (nature VS. nuture, and while staying nuetral on the subject she basically told the gays that they were not nature or therefore unnatural or unnormal)

4. both the gay brother and the husband are offended by her questions (why they were offended ill never know. im gay, i didnt find it offense, i found it engaging, but whatever!)

3. Diane Keaton steps in saying she wishes all her sons were gay, to draw attention and embarrassment away from her gay son and his partner. why they were feeling so low and embarrassed is beyond me, but thats why she said what she said.

4. other family members realize what she is doing and step in trying to make him feel better too. it starts to work he cheers up.

5. SJP, who is obviously socially inept (ya like that person who doesnt know saying certain things out loud isnt good, like a person who is horrible at social situations and says the stupidest things) doesnt understand what the mother and all the other family members are doing, and instead actually thinks diane keaton was being serious. a normal person would have caught on and changed the subject. they were giving her a chance to change topics. SJP is mind bottled thinking that Diane Keaton was serious about wishing all her sons gay and speaks her mind. about how can any person wish for a harder life. and thats what it is, theres more adversity to grow up with and its true id know. (she says she doesnt mean to be rude but... )

6. than dermont mulroney who is sick of her social failures finally says say what you mean to say! frustrated that she cant understand small social clues like trying to spare his brother, or to let her uncomfortable question slide.

7. The Dad -Craig Nelson- than starts saying enough, he has had it with SJP asking awkward questions, and sorry that his gay son is embarrassed. he simply wants this conversation to end.

8. SJP agian she is baaaddd with social cluing and keeps on rolling... ive met people like her before, they ask in appropriate questions, dont know when to stop talking, ask weird questions, etc .

that was my take on everything that went down. and i think this was further proven by diane keaton throwing a knife at her son who is clearly sitting there thinking about how even at home he isnt thought of as being normal, and gives him a pep talk

"I'm going to cut out your heart with a spoon"

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Very good summation of that scene! This step-by-step explanation definitely makes it easy to understand the scene, for those who had trouble in the beginning.

We're the A.P.B, and this thread is officially crashed.
http://www.savethescc.com/

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i always skip this scene... hate it; but what i wanna know & what no1 seems 2 want to answer is what the hell does diane keaton say @ the beginning of the scene in which point the granddaughter says, "...grandma signed something really, really bad." like the what the hell did DK sign?!?


coolness

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She said she wished all her sons were gay so they'd never leave her as if they would never have found anyone because they aren't het.

The thing is even if she had said it in a casual way like her sister they would have found something to gripe about with her, because they already don't like her, because they are going by Amy's attitude towards her.

I don't think she's any less normal. She like anyone else trying hard to please people that are determined to hate her based on what someone else said about her. Her trying too hard to fit in is what messes her up, but it would have happened anyway. I don't think she's socially inept just not like the family and probably takes more time to get to know. But they didn't try to get to know her, because they had their minds made up, because of Amy.

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I found it interesting how one could bring up race but the other could not bring up homosexuality.
by solesister "get thee to a nunnery!"

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I always thought they took it offensively because she likened the difficulty of being gay as being "challenged" which is a sensitve button for the son who is deaf, and then asks the husband to relate which he takes as referring to his challenge which was his race. Plus she kept referring to being Normal as the alternative to being gay, as a family with a gay son/brother/husband wouldn't you expect them to take offense to that?

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Not really. I'm gay and I can understand Meridith's perspective completely. I personally think the family had a pre-disposition to hate her, so they just used her conversation as ammo against her. If Meridith had asked me the same question, it wouldn't have been offensive, I would have just stated my opinion. Her delivery was awkward, but she did make her point. The family just was overly sensitive and refused to acknowledge that gay people do have a lot of hardships. If one person would had just acknowledged that, it probably would have ended the conversation.

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but what did diane keaton sign that made her granddaughter announce, "grandma signed something really really bad."


coolness

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Very well said, I tried to explain the points you were making in #1 and #2 in another thread, but you explained it much more clearly than I did. Not sure how people didn't see that's why Meredith was asking her question after her sister asked hers and got such a warm reply. I also agree with your point in #5. She wasn't trying to be rude, but in her anxiety she was having a verbal diarrhea problem, lol. And the more she tried to explain her point the deeper she dug the hole she was in. But it was obvious that it was out of nerves and nothing more.

Silence is the best reply to a fool.

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[deleted]

If you accept that Meredith was responding to Sybil's remark about wishing all her son's were gay, but tripped over a special family sensitivity about homosexuality, you might wonder what should Meredith have said?

C_Howitfeels has by chance answered that question with his sig line: Silence is the best reply to a fool.



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I think it was the awkwardness of it and that fact that she didn't shut up. They also already saw her as uptight and annoying so that just added to it

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The way the family reacted seemed to me like they were at some level uncomfortable with their son being gay. They became so scared when Meredith started her verbal diarrhoea about gay children. Silence befell the table, as she went on and on. Their defensive responses were weak and very PC surface cliches. Finally they resorted to shouting as if they had to stop their own deep, dark thoughts from being said aloud. If they were truly cool and comfortable with their gay son, then they would have taken the opportunity to educate their guest about homosexuality in a calm and rational manner. The fact that they panicked and shouted just seemed like they were unnerved by her remarks.



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http://youtu.be/oHg5SJYRHA0

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That was a difficult scene to watch,the dinner scene, and the discomfort I"m sure was intended. SJP was certainly cast as the Bad Witch, and she was excellent in the role. I liked the film for its easy transitions from comedy to drama to sentimentality. Acting performances were right on the money. Also like that they didn't have to tell us that Diane Keaton's character had passed away. She was just missing from the final scene, except for her picture. The director and writer trusted us to figure that out. Loved the film. Many special moments. I liked Rachel McAdams in particular. But every character had a good moment. A really well-constructed film. Kudos to the director and writer.

Frank S.

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