Before we meet any characters in “The Family Stone,” Thomas Bezucha’s 2005 holiday dramedy about a close-knit extended family meeting their prodigal son’s uptight new girlfriend for the first time, a cellphone rings. “This is Meredith,” a voice chirps, before Bezucha cuts from black to a shot of the back of a woman’s head, focusing on her hair that’s been tightly wound into a severe bun. Type-A busybody Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker) putters around a busy department store, flush with people as Christmas approaches, talking out the logistics of a deal she’s trying to close. “Combine the files, get them to me, I’ll look them over,” Meredith says to some poor assistant on the other end of the line, before her boyfriend, Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney), can get her off the call so they

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