This Is Where I Leave You (2014)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The thing is, while it is funny and somewhat interesting, it deals with serious things, yet provides no particular insight or point and serves no particular purpose. Sure, the father died and a large and somewhat-dysfunctional family is trying to cope with it. That is portrayed OK and from a funny angle, which is good to take your mind of the sad event. But, it would have been much better had it tried to go somewhere with all this, apart from the silly cliche of "don't play it safe, take a chance" for our somewhat-main protagonist (played by Jason Bateman).As-is, it is a look of a particular family and how it deals with its first tragic event. Which is fine, but, there are many families and they deal with this stuff in many ways, we never quite find out what's so special about this one that we should care much.Even the extended cameo of Blah-Blah of HIMYM fame (Abigail Spencer) doesn't really work towards providing much point to all of this.All that being said, it's OK and worth a watch, it's just that it feels like it could have been much better.

This Is Where I leave You(2014) Starring: Jason Batemen, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Corey Stoll, Adam Driver, Kathryn Hann, Rose Byrne, Abigail Spencer, Timothy Olyphant, and Ben Schwartz Directed By: Shawn Levy Review This is where I leave the mediocre stuff. If you were looking forward to seeing this like I was don't bother it's alright for a one time watch but not that impressive till pretty bad. You got some great performances from some of the main stars though. We open up in the picture with Jade(Batemen) who has a great life and everything is just the way he likes it until one day for his wife's birthday he goes home a little earlier and finds her sleeping with his boss. He loses job and his father dies. His fathers last request was that the family must stay under one roof together for a week. The cast does amazing in this movie with the poor script their given to work with especially Fey, Batemen, and Driver. The problem is that while the cast is amazing they all have mediocre material to work with. The movie is pretty bad but it has a ton of good with stellar performances and nice pacing. Everyone in my theater laughed a lot and when we laughed we laughed hard. The film is well handled and then it's very underhanded. This Is Where I Leave You has its moments, but given the amount of talent assembled on screen you would expect something better rather then the letdown this film is it's strictly a rental. I give This Is Where I leave You a 2 1/2 out of 5.

This Is Where I Leave You is a film that seems to be very 'busy' all the time but at the same time is also a film that never really goes anywhere and does very little that's actually interesting.Essentially, we have a bunch of estranged siblings who had little contact with each other prior to their father's death and it is their father's death that brings them together. At the behest of their father the family are forced to spend a week together taking part in a form of Jewish mourning known as Shiva whereby the family are forbidden from leaving the area or taking public transport (amongst other things). This sets out the framework for the film, but that's all it really does - the siblings are at each other's throats at the start and are still the same at the end with very little in the way of reflection or insight offered in between. The characterisations are sketchy and flat here making many of the characters seem more like caricatures rather than human beings.Another problem here is that very little of what is on offer here feels realistic or believable. The Altman family are dysfunctional, but this concept is taken to a ridiculous extreme here and makes it look as if we're watching some sort of parody of a bad soap opera or a bad sitcom. Even if you're prepared to overlook the over-the-top antics of the Altman family then it's almost impossible to get around how unlikeable and annoying many members of the family are - it's safe to say that they are a hard bunch to tolerate over a 100 minute period.Other major problems relate to the unfocused nature of the story; it seemed to just keep flitting around all the over the place without really settling on one main story. It never seems to settle into any kind of rhythm and ironically it actually achieves very little by trying to do too much. Screenwriter Jonathan Tropper gives many of the characters nothing interesting to say or do making the film feel both dull and boring. I also felt that too much time was spent on irritating characters and not enough time was spent on more interesting characters (such as Timothy Olyphant's character). Director Shawn Levy shoots the film in the style of a soap opera and gives the film a very tedious episodic feel.Whilst many of the characters got on my nerves here there were a few exceptions; Jane Fonda was a lot of fun and her dirty talk about their father was both gag-inducing and pretty damn funny. Bateman is the most likable member of the Altman family and probably the most believable (and one of the few characters who didn't annoy me).Sadly, there are only a couple of moments in this film that are either amusing or tolerable and for the most part this is a loud, irritating, and generally unbearable affair from start to finish.

Whilst this may look like a smart comedy on the outside, all This Is Where I Leave You eventually becomes a clichéd rom-com with added drama. The film fails to bring any real originality to movie world, being overly sappy, telling retired jokes and sticking to a predictable story. Whilst at first I thought I could get passed the initial clichés, they just continued to pile on me in this unrelenting struggle to get me to like something that has been done over and over again. This Is Where I Leave unforgivably fails to give any individuality to its story. It's the typical story arch from a thousand other comedy's, beginning with heart break, realisation and then all rounded triumph over the defeat.