Taglines: Get ready for one mother of a road trip.
Andy Brewster (Seth Rogen) is a UCLA-graduate organic chemist and inventor. He is attempting to get his environmentally friendly cleaning product, ScieoClean, in a major retail store. However, each retail store he visits dismisses him before he can end his pitch. After a disappointing sales pitch to K-Mart, he visits his mother, Joyce Brewster (Barbra Streisand), in New Jersey before leaving on a cross-country trip to Las Vegas, lying to her that his pitch ended well so she won’t worry about him.
While there she reveals to him that he was named after a boy she fell in love with in Florida named Andrew Margolis, whom she hoped would object to her marriage with Andy’s father. However, he never did and she felt that she never mattered to him afterwards. After a little research, he finds Andrew Margolis is still alive and unmarried living in San Francisco. He invites his unknowing mother on the trip, claiming he wants to spend some time with her.
The road trip quickly becomes hard for Andy as his mother continues to intervene in his life. After their car breaks down in Tennessee, Joyce calls Andy’s ex-girlfriend Jessica (Yvonne Strahovski), whom Joyce insists Andy should get back together with, to pick them up. At a pregnant and married Jessica’s house she reveals that Andy proposed to her before college and she turned him down, shocking Joyce, who believed Andy had trouble proposing to women. Andy is glum afterward and Joyce apologizes for calling Jessica, which Andy half-heartedly accepts.
In Texas, Andy has a meeting with Costco executive Ryan McFeer (Brandon Keener) however Joyce stays at the meeting and criticizes the products bottling and name along with Ryan to the point that Andy snaps at him. At the motel that night a depressed Andy begins drinking and Joyce attempts to make up with him however Andy snaps at her, only to have Joyce snap back and leave for a nearby bar. Later Andy attempts to retrieve his mother but gets in a fight with a bar patron who attempts to stop her from leaving, receiving a black eye in the process.
At a steak restaurant the next day the two exchange apologies and Andy reveals that he is failing at selling ScieoClean. Joyce enters a steak eating challenge where she is noticed by cowboy-styled businessman Ben Graw (Brett Cullen), who gives her tips on eating and helps her finish the challenge. Afterwards he reveals he does a lot of business in New Jersey and asks her to dinner. Joyce, who has never been in a relationship after Andy’s dad died when he was eight, balks at the offer so Ben merely leaves his number and asks her to call if she reconsiders.
The Guilt Trip is a 2012 American road comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher from a screenplay written by Dan Fogelman, starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen, who both also served as executive producers on the film. The Guilt Trip grossed $5.3 million in its opening weekend, coming in at No. 6. It ultimately grossed $37.1 million in the US and $4.7 million elsewhere, for a total of $41.9 million worldwide.
The Guilt Trip (2012)
Directed by: Anne Fletcher
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen, Julene Renee, Zabryna Guevara, John Funk, Robert Curtis Brown, Kathy Najimy, Miriam Margolyes, Rose Abdoo, Vivian Vanderwerd, Vicki Goldsmith
Screenplay by: Dan Fogelman
Production Design by: Nelson Coates
Cinematography by: Oliver Stapleton
Film Editing by: Dana E. Glauberman, Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Costume Design by: Danny Glicker
Set Decoration by: Karen O’Hara
Art Direction by: David Lazan
Music by: Christophe Beck
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language and some risque material.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: December 19, 2012
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