The death of their father helps them to live in harmony with each others and restore their feelings of belonging to one family and the cooperation of its members, as upon the death their father, four brothers after many years of absence, return to live together at their home, where they born in, the thing that strengthens their ties.
Occasionally, Hollywood will step forward with a family drama that actually manages to tinker with actual pain... "This Is Where I Leave You" has no edge, no darkness, no texture, no character to speak of.
The stellar cast is first rate, elevating whatever weaknesses there are in the material, and the overall result is an endearing, dysfunctional family that you'll enjoying spending a few hours with.
Once in awhile, a reviewer's darkest suspicions about a film butt up against a sneaky pleasure in its incidental epiphanies. I confess to being conflicted.
This Is Where I Leave You amounts to everything I can't stand about certain American movies. It gathers too many good, smart actors and gives most of them almost nothing interesting to play.
It speaks volumes about the current shortage of this type of project that so many talented people were willing to attach themselves to a picture as subpar as this one.
The most charitable thing you can say about This Is Where I Leave You is that it is resolutely innocuous -- a nothing of a movie, neutered and sanitary.
Mawkish, self-satisfied and false, This Is Where I Leave You strenuously attempts to wring poignancy from its familial clashes and catharsis. More often, it's cringe-inducing.
The Altmans might be way ahead of the Osbournes and Kardashians in terms of letting their private moments hang out, but the movie is as profound as a reality show in its exploration of family dynamics.
In the best dramedies, of course, laughter and tears alternate seamlessly and gracefully, and you leave both entertained and enlightened. Alas, this isn't that film.
