Jeff (Jason Segal) is one of those guys who believes that his purpose in life will be decided by fate and that everything happens for a reason. Granted, it’s up to him to decide which leads to follow which I guess makes him more in control of his destiny then he thinks. Unfortunately, Jeff is a thirty something year old who is still living in the basement of his mother’s house and, in reality, is simply doing nothing with his life. His mother, Sharon (Susan Sarandon), is a single working woman who feels as if her life has become monotonous and his brother’s marriage is on the rocks, especially after he went against her wishes and bought himself a Porsche. Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a dramedy (though it claim’s its a comedy) about fate, family and the search for wood glue to fix a shutter panel.
Coming in at a crisp 83 minutes, the Duplass brothers made a good move and decided not to waste your valuable time. They quickly and efficiently develop the characters, chuck in a little humor here and there and get down to the story of Jeff and Pat (Ed Helms) investigating Pat’s potentially adulterous wife (Judy Greer) even if the main mission of the movie is to buy wood glue. Like many of Duplass’ films, the movie is quirky, slightly offbeat and always full of heart.
The performances from the strong cast were good all around. Jason Segal pretty much played a more philosophical/stoner version of himself from Forgetting Sarah Marshall while Greer and Sarandon were delightful and powerful in the limited time that they each had on the screen. While Ed Helms did a great job of being an ignorant asshole, his humor is slowly starting to weigh on me as it is getting rather repetitive. Also, he looks terrible with a goatee. I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea for him to have facial hair with that giant toothy smile of his but Mr. Helms, for future reference, don’t ever rock a goatee again, it doesn’t look good.
While not great, Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a good indie-ish film that tells a simple story of a man looking for his destiny. My expectations skewed my view of the film since I was expecting a little more humor than drama and ended up getting the opposite, but, despite those initial expectations, the movie is still worth seeing, though probably not in a theater.
Rating: Offbeat, charming and oddly uplifting (6.3/10)
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