This Is Where I Leave You: “An all-star cast who are all led astray by a smarmy script”

Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Corey Stoll and Adam Driver in This Is Where I Leave You
Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc

[easyreview cat1title = “This Is Where I Leave You” cat1rating = 1.5 cat1detail = “”]

Starring:Tina Fey, Jane Fonda

Directed by: Shawn Levy

This comedy about a death is a funeral for the audience.

But, hey, here’s your chance to sit shiva with an all-star cast, led by Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver and Corey Stoll, who are all led astray by a smarmy script and sitcom-y direction by Shawn Levy (The Internship, ugh). This Is Where I Leave You was a 2009 bestseller by Jonathan Tropper, who’d be right to sue if he hadn’t written the dumb script himself. From the minute Mom (Fonda) brings the whole mishpocha home to Westchester to honor dear, dead, atheist Dad, the movie embalms every cliché of Jewish-family dysfunction. Bateman and Fey rise above the material. The others, notably Fonda doing boob-job jokes at her own expense, aren’t so lucky.

Even if you choke out a laugh ”“ it’s hard not to smile around Driver ”“ you’ll hate yourself for it.