The formula for a road trip comedy is simple enough: have a valid reason for a cross country road trip. Add two conflicting personalities, and put them them in close quarters to each other for long periods of time. Watch the laughs roll in. Other movies have done this to great effect, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Road Trip, and Due Date all spring to mind. Now it's the turn of The Guilt Trip, from director Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses, The Proposal), to travel down the comedic highway. Seth Rogen stars as Andy Brewster, an inventor about to embark on a cross country trip to sell an environmentally friendly cleaning product. Reluctantly, he has invited his mother Joyce (Barbara Streisand) along, forcing them both to confront some long simmering family tensions. As you can expect the laughs are secondary to mother and son working their way through their respective problems, and while it does have it's moment, a lot of the time it falls flat.
The main thing this movie has going for it is the fantastic chemistry between Rogen and Streisand. They spark off each other wonderfully, Rogen working best when worked up by Streisand's mollycoddling, though at times his whining can be a bit grating. This is a bit lighter than what we are used to from Rogen. Sure, he's been in a few kids movies, but we are used to him being in harder edged comedies, where he's free to use the bluer side of the English language as much as he wants. The thing is he doesn't feel restrained here, toning down his usual shtick, but still remaining extremely likable. Streisand works really well in the role as the interfering mother, really making the part her own. And I expect there will be a lot of people the audience who will find some of the interactions between Joyce and Andy familiar. I sure did.
The story starts off well enough, really adding some emotional weight very early on. But, ironically enough, when they get into the car, it grinds to a halt. A sub plot about Andy's love life is built up to be a lot more important than it really is, and is dropped half way through, and never mentioned again. The humour is very nicely judged. There really isn't that much of it to go around, but you will find yourself chuckling every now and again. It becomes predictable the closer we get toward the end, building to an emotional crescendo, but thankfully it remains the right side of sentimental, and is extremely heart warming in places.
While not a bad movie, it definitely feels lacking in places. The chemistry between the two leads helps it immensely, and if a light, inoffensive comedy drama is what you are looking for, you could do a lot worse.
The main thing this movie has going for it is the fantastic chemistry between Rogen and Streisand. They spark off each other wonderfully, Rogen working best when worked up by Streisand's mollycoddling, though at times his whining can be a bit grating. This is a bit lighter than what we are used to from Rogen. Sure, he's been in a few kids movies, but we are used to him being in harder edged comedies, where he's free to use the bluer side of the English language as much as he wants. The thing is he doesn't feel restrained here, toning down his usual shtick, but still remaining extremely likable. Streisand works really well in the role as the interfering mother, really making the part her own. And I expect there will be a lot of people the audience who will find some of the interactions between Joyce and Andy familiar. I sure did.
The story starts off well enough, really adding some emotional weight very early on. But, ironically enough, when they get into the car, it grinds to a halt. A sub plot about Andy's love life is built up to be a lot more important than it really is, and is dropped half way through, and never mentioned again. The humour is very nicely judged. There really isn't that much of it to go around, but you will find yourself chuckling every now and again. It becomes predictable the closer we get toward the end, building to an emotional crescendo, but thankfully it remains the right side of sentimental, and is extremely heart warming in places.
While not a bad movie, it definitely feels lacking in places. The chemistry between the two leads helps it immensely, and if a light, inoffensive comedy drama is what you are looking for, you could do a lot worse.
