Review: This is Where I Leave You

Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) learns the following in the opening moments of This is Where I Leave You: his wife Quinn (Abigail Spencer) has been having a yearlong affair with his boss (Dax Shepard), his father has just died, and he has to go sit shiva with his family.

Let's meet the Altman clan. There's the firstborn Paul (Corey Stoll), who stayed behind to run the family business, and whose wife Annie (Kathryn Hahn) dated Judd for six months. There's bossypants Wendy (Tina Fey) - mother of two, wife of a barely there husband - who still carries a torch for former sweetheart Horry (Timothy Olyphant). There's the youngest Paul (Adam Driver), the irresponsible but lovable scamp, who brings home his latest flame Tracy (Connie Britton), a much older therapist. That the Altman matriarch Hillary (Jane Fonda) is also a therapist - whose bestselling book Cradle and All chronicled all the details of her children's lives - is not lost on the other siblings. Dysfunction abounds, brawls are around every other corner. As Annie tells Tracy, "Get out while you can."

As expected, going back home resurrects dormant feelings. Paul is still bitter that his brothers and sister flew the coop; he's also pestered as to when he and Annie will be having kids. Wendy still regrets leaving Horry behind, especially since they were both in the accident that left him brain damaged and with memory problems. Judd runs into an old girlfriend Penny (Rose Byrne), who might be his second chance at love or a stepping stone back to his wife, who shows up and announces she's pregnant.

So many characters, so many stories, so little time. Director Shawn Levy and screenwriter Jonathan Tropper (adapting his own novel) do a reasonably good job of wrangling all the elements of this sprawling family dramedy. Yet there's simply too much going on; most of the situations are skimmed rather than explored. For all the emotional baggage and complications unloaded over the course of the film, there's little sense of things being at stake. Still, there is satisfaction in watching all of the actors interact even if some, like Hahn and Britton, are given the thinnest of material to work with.

Bateman, Stoll, Fey, and Driver convey a camaraderie that strikes the right notes of sibling rivalry and revelry. The scene where the brothers get high in the temple is particularly enjoyable. Fonda and her "bionic breasts" float above the proceedings with bounce and self-assuredness. Byrne is warm and wonderful. Best of all is Driver who is all puppy dog energy and slightly off center comic timing. His delivery of "Touché, pussycat!" is priceless.

This is Where I Leave You

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Written by: Jonathan Tropper; adapted from his own novel

Starring: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Rose Byrne, Adam Driver, Corey Stoll, Timothy Olyphant, Kathryn Hahn, Connie Britton, Abigail Spencer, Dax Shepard, Ben Schwartz, Debra Monk