C'est ici que l'on se quitte

Looking at the starry cast of This Is Where I Leave You, it's easy to get excited about the film. But that excitement might easily fade away when you realise that the director at the helm of this family dramedy is Shawn Levy, best-known for resolutely mediocre films like Night At The Museum and The Internship. Surprisingly, however, Levy has crafted something witty, wise and quite wonderful from Jonathan Tropper's screenplay (adapted from the latter's own best-selling novel). Its narrative might struggle a little at points, and some characters fail to really leap off the screen the way they're clearly meant to. But This Is Where I Leave You is without a doubt Levy's most engaging, full-bodied effort yet: a rich, bitter, quirky film about love and family that teeters along the thin, broken lines dividing life and death, and comedy and tragedy.

Judd Altman (Bateman) is having the worst year of his life. He's just discovered that his wife Quinn (Spencer) is having an affair with his scumbag radio-host boss (Shepard). The last thing he can handle is the death of a family member. But home he must go in the wake of his father's demise. Once there, Judd and his siblings - driven Wendy (Fey), stern Paul (Stoll), and quirky Phillip (Driver) - must abide by their father's dying wishes, as relayed by their mom Hilary (Fonda): they are to sit shiva for seven days, a week in which secrets are revealed, tensions run high, and love sneaks through amidst all the lies and loss.

It's a situation rich with potential, one that could easily have taken the path of high melodrama or descended into outright buffoonery. Levy and Tropper go for something in-between. And so, in a film in which Judd struggles desperately to mourn his father after the implosion of his marriage, the sexual escapades of Paul and his baby-hungry wife Annie (Hahn) are telecast to the entire house via a baby monitor. Wendy re-connects with Horry (Olyphant), the brain-damaged childhood sweetheart she left behind for a loveless marriage to Barry (Lazar). Her brothers sneak off and get high during a service at the synagogue. The final result is a tangle of black humour and bittersweet tragedy, woven into a tapestry of joy and misery that's remarkably close to life itself.

What keeps the film's servings of tragedy and comedy from tipping into farce are its endearingly real characters. It's easy to see the wealth of love and resentment that binds the Altman family together. The siblings argue to the point of bloodshed over who will take over their dad's sporting goods shop, and they tease one another with the poker-sharp memories of years of enforced familiarity. But they also let their guards down around one another: Judd chats out his troubles with his sister Wendy, perched atop a roof; the siblings complain about the loss of privacy stemming from their mom's best-selling book about their childhoods, but still find themselves turning to her in moments of deepest grief. "You're idiots," Wendy declares at one point to her brothers, "But you're my idiots" - a sentiment that most would agree applies particularly well to one's siblings.

Even the supporting characters are mostly well-served by the script, whether it's widowed next-door neighbour Linda (Monk), mother of Horry and keeper of a secret that will shock the Altman children when it's revealed; or Phillip's new fiancée Tracy (Britton), a sexy, intelligent therapist who knows just what a big mistake she's made in falling for the Altman family screw-up. It's particularly intriguing that Quinn isn't written off simply as a degenerate whore, but someone whose mistakes - though inexcusable - are rooted in as much heartbreak and sadness as she's causing Judd with her infidelity.

Unfortunately, not every character in This Is Where I Leave You rings quite so truly. While Judd freaks out about Quinn, especially when she flings a bombshell at him when she turns up at the Altman home, he also draws closer to Penny (Byrne) - the sweet, kooky girl who's held a torch for him since high school. In a film filled with so many quirky-but-realistic characters, each of whom could easily have taken the lead, Penny is an odd cardboard cutout of a dream girl. In effect, she bounces around and chirps supposedly insightful but painfully awkward things like, "I've always seen you, Judd Altman". Poor Byrne tries her best, and has a sweet chemistry with Bateman, but her character feels less like a genuine romantic option than the wishful thinking of a writer who's spent considerably more time fleshing out his other characters.

In news surprising to no one, Levy's ensemble cast is an absolute joy to watch in action. Bateman anchors the entire film with one of his most sensitive performances yet, but everyone around him gets a chance to shine. Fey, better known as a comedian, mines Wendy's troubled relationship with Horry for genuine emotional trauma, while Stoll and Driver round out the Altman quartet with steady, appealing turns as the eldest and youngest brothers who just can't get along. Fonda is luminous, carrying off the comedy - and her prosthetic breasts - with remarkable grace, while creating a picture of a tough, sexually progressive woman with plenty of depth and love for her children.

Like the fractured, dysfunctional family at its heart, This Is Where I Leave You isn't perfect. It can be insular at times, and its characters occasionally speak in perfectly tart soundbites that don't quite ring true. But Levy's film is also a tender, silly, deep, smart and ridiculous look at a family in mourning. It finds the hidden joys and awkward sadnesses in a group of people who sometimes love more than they like one another. And it serves as a potent reminder that life - happiness, tragedy, and everything in between - keeps happening, often when we least want it to.

I'm at #27 on a 30 movies in 30 nights quest, mostly taking "advice" from film critic's ratings. So, why did I enjoy this silly little "family conflict" film more than most of the 2022 Oscar nominated ones I have watched? Maybe because it's more real, strikes the right notes, doesn't try to be too artistic (while being vague), and shows us a world that we can all relate to in a fun and lovable way. This story is full of messy family drama, handled with grace and humor, and the main characters are so full of genuine humanity that it's hard not to get sucked in.

The great cast was the reason I chose it, but the sweet themes of family and love and bonds and hopefulness... is the reason I enjoyed it. Seriously, maybe it's time to stop listening to film critics and just try something that's real and relatable. I'm glad I did. A solid 8 from me... and a very welcome diversion.

I like this movie. It's nice. It's like a tea on a a rainy day. This is like a modern version of The Big Chill- typical family issues solved through dilemmas and hugs and jocularity. It's people sitting around and laughing at the craziness of it all.

I've seen it all before but it works. The reason it works is its casting. Actors who are grounded and real and you can feel true empathy from them. Actors who always have emotion or depth no matter what the role.

This isn't going to go deep on a psych level or rip apart what the foundations of marriage might be but it does offer a couple nice lemon twists you don't see coming. Overall its a good watch and feels like an afternoon spent with friends.

From the novel by Jonathan Tropper, This is Where I leave You is the story of how a dysfunctional family gets together for a week to conduct the Jewish ritual of sitting Shiva for seven days after the passing of their father, for whom this was his dying wish. Judd, played by Jason Bateman, is fresh off the shocking revelation that his wife has been cheating on him with his boss, while his 3 siblings are wonderful mess of their own problems. The mother, played by Jane Fonda, is an over sharing woman who published a book over 25 years earlier about their childhoods and their family secrets. For her, nothing is secret but for the adult children, the book stands as an obvious lasting scar.

After having read all of Jonathan Tropper's novels, it is hard to avoid the thought that they seem to have been written for the screen. His dialog, his wisdom, his humor and outrageous situations have always seemed destined to be made into films. When I saw that This is Where I Leave You was to become a film, I knew that if nothing else, it would reflect many of the same elements that make his fiction so much fun.

What I guess I didn't count on was the fact that while this is a very solid movie, it still exposes the difficulty of adaptation. Much of the wisdom and humor of the book must be conveyed in a series of one on one conversations between characters, which, after a while start to feel a little exhausting. Tropper, who did the screenplay himself, chose to stay away from doing flashbacks to convey back story, hoping to work the relevant information into the plot. It is not a bad choice, but it does deprive the audience of some of the information that we would like to know: like what exactly happened to neighbor/semi-adopted child Horry that caused him to be brain damaged? It is referenced but never fully explained, which would seem important because of the apparent role the Tina Fey character had in it. I can only think that maybe some bit of dialog somewhere was cut out of the final edit. The bit at the beginning with the birthday cake was underplayed in comparison to what happened in the book—probably not a terrible choice, though I might have enjoyed seeing the whole sequence end with something more explosive.

Still, This Is Where I Leave You had some great moments and the story and performances carried the day. Jason Bateman as Judd is a great everyman; Adam Driver wins an MVP for his role as the goof-up brother, Phillip; Corey Stoll as Paul, the brother who holds down the fort for the others yet has his manhood challenged at every turn; Kathryn Hahn as Judd's Ex and Paul's Current (awkward!) ; Jane Fonda is convincing as the overbearing mother; Tina Fey as the alcoholic sister; Rose Byrne as Judd's hometown love interest, Penny Moore and Connie Britton as the goof-up brother's older woman--all perform the admirable job of making this rather dark comedy enjoyable.

Great cast. Great story. Terrific movie. You will not regret watching this one. There are some great little twists and turns. Very enjoyable.