How old is too old for a boob job? Isn’t there a point at which you stop? I mean, do you ever see old people on roller coasters? It’s funny how some things have age limits instilled and others have age limits in practice. A boob job on 76-year-old Jane Fonda is funny. Bravo.
The Altman family gathers in unison to mourn the loss of its patriarch. The matriarch (Fonda) insists insists upon Shiva rules — everybody has to be quarantined for a family-time week and, specifically, not do stuff. What’s the Wish I Was Here line? “So much bad news at once.” Let me say this right off the bat – I love my family, my four sibs and my parents, but I am not right now prepared to spend a week with them in the same house. Far as I’m concerned, that’s a form of medieval torture.
On the off chance that a family funeral doesn’t grab you, the hook here is that this is a large group of functionality-challenged adults. All of them have serious relationship problems. Judd (Jason Bateman) just caught his wife (Abigail Spencer) in bed with a particularly slimy individual, shock-jock Wade (Dax Shepard). The shock jock is Judd’s boss, btw. How bad do you have to screw up for your wife to have that affair, huh? What justifies the friend/boss/shock jock knock, huh? Not to be outdone, Judd’s sister Wendy (Tina 
Fey) is married to an asshole, his brother Paul (Corey Stoll) IS an asshole – although his problem is his wife wants a baby worse than the subject of that Ace of Bass song, and his youngest sib Phillip (Adam Driver) has a maturity level so underdeveloped, he’s essentially dating his mother.
Naturally, Judd, Wendy & Phillip start coveting. That’s what happens when you make pretty people sit together for a week without good reason. This Is Where I Leave You cashes in specifically on the idea that no matter how screwed up you and yours are, these people are worse. Hence, I was taken. Most films of this variety focus on one or two relationships. Leave You didn’t leave you hanging; it explored the relationships among pretty much all the sibs and mom. Kudos to the casting, and the subdued direction of Tina Fey – this ain’t her movie, she knows it, and doesn’t steal focus.
I don’t know the longevity here. Home for the Holidays remains my favorite dysfunctional family exploration and if you can find it when you’re home for the holidays, you’re a better man than I. So if you’re piqued, I say go see it now before you lose interest, cuz the shelf life here is suspect.
Four sibs sequestered for Shiva
Find the tight space hard to live-a
Escape, they do
A time or two
Rules? See: damn, I don’t give a
Rated R, 103 Minutes
D: Shawn Levy
W: Jonathan Tropper
Genre: Must.kill.all.family.members
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Dysfunctional young adults
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Their parents
