Review of This Is Where I Leave You (2014) by Glenn G — 27 Sep 2014

There's a genre of film I like to call the "Giant Kitchen Island Movies" in which first world problems are explored inside the hallowed suburban walls of upper middle class families. Think Nancy Meyers' oeuvre - SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE, IT'S COMPLICATED - as a prime example. It's a type of film you don't see much of anymore, and critics have been especially tough on the latest installment in this genre, THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU. Adapting his own bestselling novel into a screenplay, Jonathan Topper along with director Shawn Levy (DATE NIGHT, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM) certainly fall into the same traps as their predecessors - lush house, overstuffed cast of characters with the requisite secrets and reveals, lots of overly dramatic yelling and tears, and the assumption that their issues are way more important than your average Joe Schmo - but damn if I didn't find myself engaged and laughing the whole time. I definitely did not have this reaction to AUGUST, OSAGE COUNTY, of which this film bears a passing resemblance down to its portrait poster art.

Jason Bateman is Judd Altman, who is having a terrible year, what with his wife sleeping with his boss and his father passing away. He's our entryway to a family reunion in which he and his siblings join his mother (Jane Fonda) in sitting shiva for seven days, this despite the fact that Mom's not Jewish and their Dad was born as such but was an atheist. Bateman is a terrific anchor, flawed yet soulful, and is helped by a stellar cast playing his siblings (Tina Fey, Corey Stoll, and Adam Driver). Everyone is struggling with something here, be it infidelity, fertility, maturity or the need to just be happy. The cast also features strong turns by Connie Britton, Kathryn Hahn and especially Rose Byrne, who has been coming on strong is recent roles, as the women in the lives of our three main male characters. Aaron Lazar and Timothy Olyphant are given precious little to do with their roles opposite Fey, but have enough skill to pop, however briefly.

This is the type of film that would have been lauded in the 80s (STEEL MAGNOLIAS, ORDINARY PEOPLE, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT) but gets trashed these days. There's nothing particularly memorable about it. In fact, I saw it yesterday and most of the details have slipped away. Still, I managed to care about these people. Sure, there are too many references to Fonda's giant boobs, too many petty fights, and there's an eleventh hour revelation that could have used one more connective scene to avoid coming out of nowhere, but I felt a genuine passion at play. Fey does well with drama, giving her character a Debra Winger-esque quirk and Driver, eschewing the anti-social tics he gives us on GIRLS, knows how to find the joy in an overgrown kid. I loved seeing Jane Fonda, who at 76 still has a killer body, and a true star's command. I'm so glad she came out of retirement to show everyone that smart women in film is something to celebrate. But the true star here is Bateman. I truly rooted for his happiness, and that final scene, a callback to an important speech he gives earlier, was truly exhilarating.

People can say what they want about the dated feel and smugness of the entire enterprise. They can cry foul at the escapist b.s. Hollywood inflicts on us with perfect fall leaves and white picket fences to distract us from the terrors and grit around us. All reasonable. But I'm willing to bet that critics would have been kinder to this perfectly entertaining film had they lived in a shittier house.