"I Need A Fork!"

At Regal Short Pump Cinemas, about an hour northwest of my parents' house, has an open caption of The Family Stone, despite the fact that they showed the film at very unorthodox time -- early mornings or very late night showings. The Regal Cinemas probably felt that showing the open captions will not make money. This is the classic example why capitalism failed Deaf people in general. They were quick to tell me that not many Deaf people showed up at the showings "anyway!" -- I was quick to point out that their unorthodox times made it DIFFICULT for anyone to show up on a consistent manner. But they won't listen.

However I made it a priority to check it out because my good friend, Ty Giordano performed in this film. Despite the fact that the reviews of the film was not bad nor good, I still had to check it out because I wanted Ty to succeed. Anything to contribute that for Ty is good, in my opinion. And you should do the same.

I was not disappointed with the film. Ty performed as a deaf, gay character named Thad Stone. He was one of five siblings (with Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Elizabeth Reaser) coming home for the Holidays with their parents who were performed by Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson. Oh, yeah, Thad has a boyfriend who is African American. Practically, everyone signs in the house including the cute boyfriend of Thad.

I was impressed with Rachel McAdams' conversations with Ty. In one scene, when Amy talked about Meredith Morton's quirky habits of clearing her throat loudly, Thad was intrigued as Amy signed, "TRUE BIZ" to indicate that she was telling the truth. You do not see that in films these days.

It appears to me that Ty made others look good -- I mean, the actors/actresses' signs did not seem to be crispy at all. Even Diane, Craig, Luke and Dermot! I was jealous that Ty got to sit on Luke Wilson's lap -- that ought to be me. But again, I probably would break Luke's legs. And seeing Ty touching the hand of Dermot Mulroney (whom has VERY nice ass that I saw on another film) just fucking enraged me. ;-)

I loved the scene where Sybil Stone (Diane Keaton) actually threw the fork at Thad's dinner plate to get his attention -- I had to snicker because I hadn't seen a film where someone does the little things that pinpointed the Deaf/hearing interaction tendencies. It was nice to see ASL/spoken English transcend with each other in the household. At least we did not have to deal with cued speech or cochlear implants, really.

I thought Ty did a great job of acting as Thad Stone. I still find it hard to believe that he TRUE BIZ acted as a gay character. I know he told me that he does not see any problem with it at all -- I certainly understand that but it is still amusing to know that a fella that I knew from college days acted as one. That is his job as an actor. And damn, he's enjoying himself as much as can be. I would be if I was in his shoes.

The Family Stone is drama-comedy film that will delight your hearts, even in the end.

Good job, Ty!

Cheers,

R-