Day 173: This is Where I leave You (August, 29)

Still with the echoes of the movie on  the day before, I wanted to remain in the same place of feelings, as to say. This way, I looked for a movie that would put me into that place, and for that reason This is Where I leave You was what I saw on day 173.

During the first half of this movie, despite the predictable events in the beginning, I was exactly where I wanted to be, with the perk of an stellar cast: Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stall, Timothy Olyphant (this last one was a big surprise, I didn't expect to see him here). Most of them are in different roles than their usual. The tone is sober, their performances are different from what I would expect from them (except Adam Driver and Jane Fonda, always the exuberant ones). It is a nice perk, as I've noticed on day 171. And like that, enjoying what I was seeing, I got to the second part of this movie.

And then what was easy, natural, familiar turned into a unnecessary psychoanalysis. The scenes became disconnected, the characters lost the natural relationship they were presenting until this point, and everything acquires an forced feature. A lot is said in this film, and I agree one hundred percent with it. I think the same way, but I also think that it shouldn't be presented as it is in here, by explicative and wise words that, despite being correct, take out all the connections until then present in this story. A good story about all the individual and familiar craziness, became sanitized. It was sad, because I was really enjoying this movie, the performances and the story in it until the writer decided to embody all the therapists in the world's history. 

I'm curious about the book, though. What didn't work so well in film maybe turns out to be great in words. Possibly the story got lost in translation, what is not a rare event in a movie adaptation. 

This is Where I Leave You. Directed by Shawn Levy. With: Jason Bateman,
Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Jane Fonda. Writer: Jonathan Tropper from his
own novel. USA,  2014, 103 min., SDDS/Datasat/Dolby Digital, Color (DVD).

PS: Joe, please don't be sad that I couldn't enjoy this one as much as you, ok? :)