This is one of those movies where you spend two hours with people you wouldn’t choose to spend time with in real life, but thanks to the Hogan Family Jason Bateman has imprinted on me* and I greatly enjoy a many of the other actors, so overall, I liked this movie. This movie has parallels to those zany comedies where you think: “that would never happen in real life” but some of the things could possibly occur means you aren’t thrown too terribly far out of reality. There are some nice moments here and there, so overall it wasn’t time wasted.**
Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home
*despite the fact that he plays essentially the same role in every single movie he is in: the guy who is smart enough to know he shouldn’t be doing what he’s doing, but he’s doing it anyway. (Exception: Juno.) (Although, now that I think about it, not really. He was just smarmier than usual in that film)
**Wow, is this a lukewarm review or what?
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/this_is_where_i_leave_you.html
(Lots of complaints about the amount of Photoshop for this one.)
I too recently watched this, which is funny because I read the book and was pretty “meh” about it (I prefer the other Tropper book I’ve read, How to Talk to a Widower, but in general I’m not a huge fan of his writing). I think I watched it because I was looking for something I didn’t have to invest too deeply in, and because it features a lot of actors that I like. If you can believe it, the characters are more likable in the film than they are in the book.