To write a film that is funny, touching, clever, insightful, quirky and have it work, is incredibly hard to do…Jonathon Tropper has done it brilliantly. Of course, he also wrote the novel.
This dramatic comedy, directed by Shawn Levy is based on Tropper’s hilarious and poignant best selling novel.
The plot: Four grown siblings are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof with their mother for a week after their father dies.
But these aren’t just any siblings and this isn’t just any mother.
The film opens with Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) coming home early from his job as a producer of a popular radio show, to surprise his wife, Quinn (Abigal Spencer) on her birthday. Unfortunately, Judd is the one that gets surprised. He finds Quinn in bed with his boss, Wayne (Dax Shepard)
And that’s the end of Judd’s perfect life. No more beautiful wife…no more job…no more great New York City apartment.
It’s in this dysfunctional state, Judd gets a call that his father has died and he has to return to his childhood home and reunite with his fiercely supportive but bossy big sister, Wendy (Tina Fey), older brother, Paul (Corey Stoll) the responsible member of the family, younger brother/flake, Phillip (Adam Driver) and his mother, Hillary (the wonderful Jane Fonda) who loves to voice her opinions about everything, especially sex and display her newly acquired breasts.
Added to this mix, is Philip’s older, rich fiancee, Tracy (Connie Britton) Horry, (Timothy Olyphant) Wendy’s first love, Paul’s wife, Annie (Kathryn Hahn) who is desperate to have a baby and next door neighbor, Linda (Debra Monk).
Rounding out this eclectic group is Penny (Rose Byrne, a hometown girl who’s carried a torch for Judd since high school and Ben Schwartz as Rabbi Grodner aka boner, a moniker he’s been trying to shake for years.
‘This Is Where I Leave You’ is a film about a family confronting their history…It’s also about the people in our lives that even though they might drive us crazy, in the end, they will always be there for us, because they are…our family.
The film will make you laugh…It will touch and surprise you in the best possible of ways and it will definitely entertain you. .
I gave ‘This Is Where I Leave You’ which opens in theatres, Friday September 19th (of course I got the date wrong in the video) 5 bagels out of 5 with the works.
Check out our Two Jews On Film video for more of my witty observations.
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