This is Where I Leave You

Any comedy fan worth their salt will be overwhelmed by the abundance of comic talent in the cast of This Is Where I Leave You. Arrested Development’s Jason Bateman and Tina Fey (the undisputed Queen of Saturday Night Live and writer of Mean Girls), provide merely the tip of the iceberg to a stellar cast. However, although director Shawn Levy’s previous credits of The Internship and Date Night might suggest that this movie will be nothing more than a frothy comedy, critics assure us that this is a film that will pack far more of a punch. 
A self-described ‘Dramedy’, This is Where I Leave You is adapted by Jonathan Tropper who wrote the 2009 New York Times bestseller of the same name. The story follows a group of four grown siblings whose father’s death forces them back under one roof. With a hotchpotch of spouses and exes thrown in, along with an over-sharing mother, comedy promptly ensues. Yet many have noted that the result is more of an August: Osage County than a slapstick full-tilt sitcom. Tropper persistently captures the chaos of adult life, the ceaselessness of romantic predicaments that torment us from adolescence through adulthood. Consequently, as one critic puts it, 'the characters actually have to make hard choices'. 
This is not to say audiences ought not to expect laughs. Jane Fonda (Nine to Five, Lee Daniels’ The Butler) plays the matriarch, a much lauded child psychologist who insisted on using intimate details of her children’s lives in all her successful publications. And Adam Driver (Girls, Frances Ha) will bring yet more comic panache with his portrayal of the stoner, lothario brother Phillip. With the energy of the a-list cast and Tropper’s proven ability with the story, this will be one comedy not to miss.