Review of This Is Where I Leave You (2014) by Fantasy — 20 Sep 2014

This is Where I Leave You is not exactly a comedy nor a drama. Rather it's an accurate portrayal of a real life family coming together to sit shiver at the death of the patriarch {the father}. We are soon drawn in remembering that when we were young, our fervent hope was to have a royal storybook marriage like the lovers in the fictional Camelot.

Despite our best intentions, life never turns out that way. Think JFK and Jackie? Secretly, we all know deep inside that our own childhood family was dysfunctional; but never realized most families are too.

We just journey thru life meandering for answers that never seem to come. This film is absolutely outstanding as it reveals a real family warts and all. The ensemble cast are all fantastic, especially Jason Bateman {the central character} and Adam Driver.

. The latter is the youngest of the siblings, the one in our family that never seems to grow up that we all envy. As the story unfolds, you can't help but see yourself. At times, it's painful to watch, but dead on accurate.

The movie will stir your emotions as you can't help but think what if each of us had taken that other fork in the road? This film will not thrill critics as they live in their own snobbish world, however it will resonate with the movie going public.

We all wish we could have "do overs" in life, but unfortunately, as we know all too well, there are none. As the film draws to conclusion you feel it's us that was sitting shiver on our own lives.

Admitting life's mistakes and saying goodbye to our childhood family is never easy. Definitely worth going to see on the giant sliver screen.