Review of The Guilt Trip (2012) by Matty S — 31 Jul 2013

Did the critics who bashed this movie skip their screening and simply glanced at the unfortunate Universal ad campaign? They clearly saw a very different movie than the one I saw.

Despite the cheesy movie posters and the horrid trailers, Anne Fletcher has created a quiet, insightful and realistic depiction of a mother / son relationship.

She also manages to bring the best out in both of her lead actors. Rogen is restrained as the son and Streisand is actually acting for the first time in years. There are really no "cheap" laughs here. In fact, the movie touches on some all too realistic aspects of family relations.

Both mother and son end up on a road trip with two very different agendas and expected outcomes. If ever a film illustrates the importance of honesty between adults who do care about each other - this movie does.

While Rogen holds his own, this is Barbra Streisand's movie. Her performance is flawlessly true. And, when the mother is ultimately forced into psychological and emotional corners by her son -- the anger boils over. And, that anger does not over boil to kitchen sink melodramatics. Streisand's performance is spot-on real and Rogen's reactions are equally realistic.

This is not the yuck and tacky comic wasteland of The Focker movies. Nor is it the typical vanity-turns one has come to expect from Streisand. Nor is it the stoner hipster comedy one expects from Rogen. Instead, this is a simple but surprisingly potent examination of a bad relationship between two people who love and deeply care about each other.

The bad reviews for this movie puzzle me. True, it is not Merchant-Ivory, but this is an essentially realistic adult film about an American family that allows one to step away feeling good, but not cheated by cheap Hollywood maneuvers.

This is a vastly underrated film that was badly promoted as toilet humor by Universal. Most definitely worth checking out. Ignore the painful poster art...