This Is Where I Leave You (2014) [Blu-ray]
Comedy | Drama

Tagline: Welcome Home. Get Uncomfortable.

When their father passes away, four grown siblings bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof.

Storyline: When their father passes away, four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide-driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves. Written by Warner Bros.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, February 5, 2015 -- This Is Where I Leave You nearly starves its overpopulated ensemble. Not only does its brisk 103-minute runtime leave director Shawn Levy without much in the way of wiggle room, it leaves a handful of characters underwritten and several actors underutilized. Based on screenwriter Jonathan Tropper's own 2010 novel of the same name, the film suffers from indecision and a lack of tough editing. Had it expanded its story, sacrificing pacing a bit -- even by twenty minutes -- it might have been a more rounded dramedy, with fewer one-note supporting characters. Had it narrowed its focus, axing unnecessary roles without trimming down the runtime, it would have been a sharper comedy, without so many quick-hitters appearing and disappearing on a whim. Does that make This Is Where I Leave You a bad film? Not in the slightest. It's sad, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, with a great cast delivering a memorably dysfunctional family that loves, fights, struggles, argues and forgives with convincing chemistry and snarky yet sincere ease. There are flaws, sure (semi-contrived movie-character quirks are out in full force), but between Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and their co-stars' performances, the nuances of the sibling rivalries and relationships, and a cleverly structured family reunion built to maximize hilarity, there's enough here to warrant strong consideration. And if the Altmans are anything like your family, brace yourself for even bigger laughs while grabbing a bigger box of tissues.

When their father passes away, four grown siblings -- Judd Altman (Jason Bateman), sister Wendy (Tina Fey), older brother Paul (Corey Stoll) and younger brother Phillip (Adam Driver) -- bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother (Jane Fonda) and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide, driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.

In his September 2014 theatrical review, Brian Orndorf, who also enjoyed the movie while noting its flaws, writes, "Adapting his novel for the screen, writer Jonathan Tropper has the unenviable task of pruning his own narrative tree, in charge of reducing literary expanse to fit the confines of a movie. Overall, Tropper manages this collection of malcontents with a degree of clarity, but moments are clearly missing. Wendy is perhaps the hardest hit in terms of subplot participation, left disgruntled by a marriage that isn't working and saddled with guilt over an accident from decades ago that left neighbor Horry (Timothy Olyphant in a bad wig) with a brain injury. It's a chunk of concern that's never developed to satisfaction, and a few supporting characters, including Phillip's much older girlfriend, therapist Tracy (Connie Britton), register more as plot devices than people. There's a substantial amount of neuroses to hack through in This is Where I Leave You, and while Tropper's management of his own work creates dramatic potholes along the way, he captures a larger arc of confession, with the Shiva period used to remember a loved one and take care of unfinished family business.

Judd's tale of wedding dissolution and townie temptation carries much of the film. He's a shaken man, facing rich humiliations in his life, unemployment, and unexpected attention from Penny, also struggling to locate a memory of his father that's clear and true. The whole family is malfunctioning, with each sibling spending the feature working through their specific issues, most born from Hillary's exploitation of their childhood failures to inspire a best-selling book. It's not terribly fresh ground to cover, but the production keeps interplay active and abnormality digestible, remaining true to the emotions in play instead of marginalizing traumatic events. This is Where I Leave You contains plenty of comedy, but the light stuff tends to obscure what the movie does best in terms of characterization. Judd's an interesting, complex guy to follow, his siblings as well (who deal with infertility, neglect, and immaturity), and the picture has presence as it works through individual challenges, hitting several highlights of raw communication and catharsis. This is Where I Leave You is clumsy on occasion, yet it achieves a satisfying understanding of aggravation and reunion, submitting lovely moments between the siblings that are pure enough to resist Levy's cartoon influence.

If you're able to ignore the flaws in the at-times indulgent This Is Where I Leave You, embracing all its hits and breezing past its small but irritating misses, a genuinely heartfelt and hilarious dramedy awaits. Yes, fringe members of the ensemble suffer from the film's short runtime, and yes, some of the character quirks are overly manufactured, to the point of being a distraction. Ignore it all. Focus on Bateman, Fey, Stoll, Driver and Fonda, the cast's chemistry, and the lightly dysfunctional relationships and you'll be set. There's a lot here to enjoy. Warner's Blu-ray release makes it all go down even easier with an excellent video presentation, faithful DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and a decent selection of extras, including a solid filmmakers' commentary.

[CSW] -1.4- I sat silently grew bored and even annoyed for most of this movie. The cast is impressive, but still disappointing because there's so much star power and so little for them to do. Characters sort through fairly common problems like infidelity, divorce, pregnancy and a death in the family. The familiarity of these topics doesn't bother me, just the fact that they aren't handled in an interesting or realistic way. This movie reminded me of Home for the Holidays (Jodie Foster, 1995) and Death at a Funeral (Frank Oz, 2007) but those are two films handle the same themes in a much funnier and more enjoyable way. I have to admit that comedy isn't my forte and standard family relationship problems need to be pretty unique and a lot funnier to tickle me. The drama was mundane and the problems aren't handled in an interesting or realistic way leaving me feeling that I was wasting my time even watching it. I kept hoping for some real drama that never materialized.
[V4.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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