In
“This Is Where I Leave You” matriarch Hillary (Jane Fonda), a best
selling author and psychologist, upon the death of their father, tells
her four adult children that, though he wasn’t religious, he wanted them
to observe the practice of shiva, mourning for the deceased, for 7
days.
The oldest son, Paul, (Corey Stoll), worked with his
father in the family owned sports equipment, and his wife Annie (Kathryn
Hahn) have unsuccessfully been trying to have a child. Judd, (Jason
Bateman), comes home from New York city after finding his wife Quinn
(Abigail Spencer) in bed with his boss (Dax Shepard). The third son, the
baby of the family, Philip, (Adam Driver), who obviously inherited his
father’s endowment and sexual prowess, appears with Traci (Connie
Britton) a beautiful, smart, much older woman, in the Porsche she bought
for him. Their only sister, Wendy, (Tina Fey) with 2 children, is
married to Barry, (Aaron Lazar) who does a lot of traveling and is
leaving for Paris as the film opens.
Along the way we meet
a childhood friend of the boys, Ben Schwartz, (Charles Grodner), who is
now a Rabbi officiating over their dad’s funeral and the shiva rituals.
Living across the way are Horry, (Timothy Olyphant), the first love of
Wendy’s, who had brain damage in an accident involving both of them, and
his mother, Linda, (Debra Monk). There is also Penny, (Rose Bryne),
Judd’s high school sweetheart, who runs an ice skating rink.
Jonathan
Tropper wrote the screenplay, based on his novel, and I hope many of
the unnecessary potty mouth lines and sexual actions such as the
emphasis on Hillary having her breasts enlarged or one of the characters
called ‘Boner’, weren’t in the book. There is really only one spoiler
in a movie like this as we get into all the personal baggage of each of
the characters. The director, Shawn Levy, is lucky to have a cast that
makes him, and Tropper, look good.
With this first rate
cast some scenes are bound to be standouts such as the talks between
Wendy and Judd on the roof but especially a scene where Traci talks to
Judd about where her relationship is going with Philip. Jason Bateman
has major scenes with most of the cast members and is, basically, the
backbone of the movie but the ‘older’ women, Britton, Fonda and Monk
bring the gravitas to the film making it less of a TV sitcom.
“This
Is Where I Leave You” is R Rated for sexual and language content plus
drug use. It is a movie in between the young adult films of summer and
the Oscar contenders of autumn.