Ryan McNeil
I’m not sure what exactly I expected from this latest Jay & Mark Duplass film, but I find myself feeling like it over-delivered on its promise. That’s been rare this year, so to start a day with such a film was quite a treat.
The “Jeff” this film speaks of is played by Jason Segel. The 30-year-old Jeff is still living in his mom’s house, and near as we can tell, he’s really not doing a whole lot with his time…except that he is watching M. Night Shymalan’s SIGNS an awful lot. Because of his affinity for the film, he has come to believe that certain things are destined, and that some occurrences are more than just co-incidental. So one morning, when he gets a phone call looking for someone named Kevin – he can’t be convinced that it was just a wrong number. It means something…but what?
This all goes down in the opening five minutes. There is a whole lot more to JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME but I don’t really want to tip it off right now. It was such a joy to see it all play out, that I’d rather let readers find out for themselves when this eventually gets released. What I will say, is that all four principle actors in this cast – Segel, Ed Helms, Judy Greer, and Susan Sarandon – nail their parts. Segel and Helms have an especially great chemistry as brothers Jeff and Pat who play off each other in situations that seem to get increasingly amusing.
Segel is playing the great big galoot we’ve seen him perfect over the years, and once again he does it with heart. Susan Sarandon does some lovely acting herself as Sharon (Pat and Jeff’s mom), and her bit is especially intriguing since she spends most of the film kept separate from her boys. Finally Judy Greer as Pat’s wife Linda, helps to ground the film. Much of what Pat and Jeff are up to is a bit looney. Having someone with a sad sense of reality mixing in with them helps to ground the film, and like she is wont to do – she breaks our heart.
I went into JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME thinking I was in for more of the mumblecore antics I’d seen in films from last year like CYRUS and PLEASE GIVE: I couldn’t have been more wrong. While some of the visual style was evocative of those titles, this is a film whose story is far more plot based. While this is another journey with an everyday character on a path of self discovery, it seems to be dreaming a little bigger…and with that comes a bit more heart than what the genre has offered so far. It rises above cliche – which is admirable, since in lesser hands it very easily could have sank – to become something totally sweet and delightful.
Check it out when it hits theatres next spring. If you don’t, I’m sure that decision will have some sort of hidden meaning.
“sweet and delightful” sounds… a bit dull. I think the mumblecore films are genreally ‘sweet’ – ben stiller in greenberg was ‘sweet’ (though unhinged), the whole romance between john c reilly and thingy tomei was ‘sweet’… what about profound? epic? grand? personal? I think, for me, what I want from a realist romance is something i can relate to. And, for better of worse, someone like woody allen seems to present profound statements by dealing with issues that i can relate to (though I can never relate to the upper-class world his characters inhabit)
To be honest mate, I might have short-sold it…that’s what I get for trying to be nonspecific. Trust me though – knowing you, and the directors you like, there is a big thread to this film that will draw you in.