Review of The Guilt Trip (2012) by Thegodfatherson — 18 May 2013

Barbra Streisand has made it very clear in the past decade or so that she doesn’t need to work in Hollywood unless she wants to, and this elite paradigm insists that there’s something to The Guilt Trip, believe it or not.

The movie was advertised as a Hangover-style comedy for the “Memories” crowd, but even if Anne Fletcher’s film defaults to comedy cliché more often than it should, one can’t deny that there’s a legitimate, endearing beating heart underneath the veneer of the movie.

Babs’ on-screen partnership with Seth Rogen is what sells the movie (unsurprisingly). Rogen may not be Hollywood’s most reliable comic leading man, but when the guy shares the screen with Streisand who’s still got her acting chops, by the way he frequently rises to the occasion.

And when the two of them find themselves in awkward and trying scenarios (this happens often in The Guilt Trip), there’s a legitimate verve and excitement to the chemistry at hand. The Guilt Trip is a slight film, almost a paper-thin one, but it’s short, to-the-point, and surprisingly watchable.

There are no extreme fireworks or examples of embarrassment nudity to shock its audience: the movie quietly and preciously unfolds with steady cuteness. It’s not the best comedy to hit screens in 2012, but I’d wager big money that you’ll watch the thing and say that it’s way better than you thought it would be.