Let's be realistic.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A family are forced to spend a week together to honor their deceased father.I found this on Blu-ray in Pound Land so I was not expecting much.I was very pleasantly surprised. The siblings squabble and barb to great comedic affect. The characters were engaging and quite often charming. There is a lot of great talent here. I was most surprised by Tina Fey who so great that I now struggle to disengage her performance from her real life.Now this film probably does tug at one too many heart strings and near the end it does get a bit "Dawson's Creek" but I didn't mind for a minute.This is not laugh-out-loud but is a great, simple story; heart warming, humorous and very enjoyable.

In the movie "This is Where I Leave You" the Altman children (Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Corey Stoll, and Adam Driver) gather in their childhood home to see out their father's final wishes following his passing. They are forced to live under one roof again with their mother (Jane Fonda). In their small hometown the children run into people of their past that they have grown apart from. Each member of the Altman family grieves in their own way and they come to important realizations along the way.Throughout the film the audience laughs and cries with the Altmans as they try and find their way after devastating news. This film incorporates well-know family drama, characters, and relationships that the viewers can relate to. Many viewers have experienced the death of a loved one and are able to find many similarities between the Altmans and their own families. I really enjoyed this film because I felt that it represented family dynamics in a small town perfectly. Also the actors make the audience feel apart of the family so much that the viewer thinks that they are going through the characters' journey with them. I would definitely recommend this movie for anyone that is looking for a funny film filled with loads of family drama.

This Is Where I Leave You is a film that seems to be very 'busy' all the time but at the same time is also a film that never really goes anywhere and does very little that's actually interesting.Essentially, we have a bunch of estranged siblings who had little contact with each other prior to their father's death and it is their father's death that brings them together. At the behest of their father the family are forced to spend a week together taking part in a form of Jewish mourning known as Shiva whereby the family are forbidden from leaving the area or taking public transport (amongst other things). This sets out the framework for the film, but that's all it really does - the siblings are at each other's throats at the start and are still the same at the end with very little in the way of reflection or insight offered in between. The characterisations are sketchy and flat here making many of the characters seem more like caricatures rather than human beings.Another problem here is that very little of what is on offer here feels realistic or believable. The Altman family are dysfunctional, but this concept is taken to a ridiculous extreme here and makes it look as if we're watching some sort of parody of a bad soap opera or a bad sitcom. Even if you're prepared to overlook the over-the-top antics of the Altman family then it's almost impossible to get around how unlikeable and annoying many members of the family are - it's safe to say that they are a hard bunch to tolerate over a 100 minute period.Other major problems relate to the unfocused nature of the story; it seemed to just keep flitting around all the over the place without really settling on one main story. It never seems to settle into any kind of rhythm and ironically it actually achieves very little by trying to do too much. Screenwriter Jonathan Tropper gives many of the characters nothing interesting to say or do making the film feel both dull and boring. I also felt that too much time was spent on irritating characters and not enough time was spent on more interesting characters (such as Timothy Olyphant's character). Director Shawn Levy shoots the film in the style of a soap opera and gives the film a very tedious episodic feel.Whilst many of the characters got on my nerves here there were a few exceptions; Jane Fonda was a lot of fun and her dirty talk about their father was both gag-inducing and pretty damn funny. Bateman is the most likable member of the Altman family and probably the most believable (and one of the few characters who didn't annoy me).Sadly, there are only a couple of moments in this film that are either amusing or tolerable and for the most part this is a loud, irritating, and generally unbearable affair from start to finish.

Whilst this may look like a smart comedy on the outside, all This Is Where I Leave You eventually becomes a clichéd rom-com with added drama. The film fails to bring any real originality to movie world, being overly sappy, telling retired jokes and sticking to a predictable story. Whilst at first I thought I could get passed the initial clichés, they just continued to pile on me in this unrelenting struggle to get me to like something that has been done over and over again. This Is Where I Leave unforgivably fails to give any individuality to its story. It's the typical story arch from a thousand other comedy's, beginning with heart break, realisation and then all rounded triumph over the defeat.