(USA, 104 min.)
Dir. Shawn Levy, Writ. Jonathan Tropper
Starring: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver,
Corey Stoll, Rose Byrne, Connie Britton, Kathryn Hahn, Timothy Olyphant,
Abigail Spencer.
Imagine August: Osage County
without the catfish, plate-smashing, incest, pill-popping and dramatic oomph,
and one might imagine a film like This is
Where I Leave You. This is Where I
Leave You brings to the screen another dysfunctional family mourning the
death of its patriarch, and like August: Osage County, it features a darn fine cast colliding in comedic moments of
familial chaos. Both August: Osage County
and This is Where I Leave You see the
authors of their popular source material adapt their own beloved works for the
screen, but the latter unfortunately just doesn’t translate as well to the
cinema as sharply as the former does.
Jonathan Tropper’s take on his own book This is Where I Leave You certainly comes off amicably onscreen, but the film simply lacks the sharpness and edge of the novel. Belly laughs and raucous humour become bemused sniffs and mild amusement. This is Where I Leave You is by no means a bad film, although if the zany family dysfunction of the book reads like August: Osage County meets Silver Linings Playbook, then the sit-commy sheen of the film plays like The Big Chill meets “Friends.” It’s a fun way to spend an hour and forty-four minutes, though, thanks to some safe laughs and a terrific cast.
This is Where I Leave
You features a roster of top stars with Jason Bateman headlining the wacky
Altman family as the down-on-his-luck middle child Judd, who catches his wife
(Abigail Spencer) cheating on him with his douchey boss (Dax Shepard), which
leaves him separated, unemployed, homeless, and dejected. Coming home to Jane
Fonda is a grand affair, since Fonda sports some hilarious bionic breasts and
easily outperforms everyone in else in the film. It’s refreshing to see Fonda
give such a feisty performance, as the liberal spirit of her swinging matriarch
(who used her kids’ lives as fodder for a best-selling parenting guide) gives This is Where I Leave You most of its spirit
and humour. Warm, funny, and unafraid to poke fun at both her age and her image, Fonda easily steals the film. There’s an opportunity to be had here, and Fonda almost single-handedly
lets the film rise to its potential. (This is why I love you, Jane Fonda.)
Other members of the ensemble are fine, especially Tina Fey
as Judd’s sarcastic sister Wendy and Rose Byrne as Judd’s likable love interest
Penny, but many parts of the ensemble are mostly stock characters that cater to
the personas that many of the actors have developed in television comedy. This is Where I Leave You almost gives
pauses for a laugh track as the sprightly direction by Shawn Levy (The Internship, Date Night) bounces between potty humour and Awkward Family Photos set-ups, and the high-key lighting and brisk
pace make the film impossibly likable. It’s the sunniest and warmest funeral
flick audiences might ever see.
Energetic films about love, life, and death are a tricky cocktail
to mix, but This is Where I Leave You
finds a bubbly balance. The cast is good and the jokes are harmless, so This is Where I Leave You amicably succeeds
by taking broad strokes. It’s something anyone can enjoy with the family,
especially if one enjoys it as a reminder that this family is not one’s own.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
This is Where I Leave You is currently playing in wide release from
Warner Bros. Pictures Canada.