Taglines: Welcome home. Get uncomfortable.
When their father passes away, four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens.
Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide— driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.
This Is Where I Leave You is an American comedy-drama film directed by Shawn Levy. It is based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Tropper, who also wrote the film’s screenplay. The film was released on September 19, 2014.
About the Story
Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) works at a radio station for popular host Wade Beaufort (Dax Shepard). After work, Judd gets a cake for his wife Quinn’s (Abigail Spencer) birthday, only to come home and find her having sex in his bed with Wade. Judd asks how long this has been going on, and Quinn says a year. This is where Judd leaves her. Judd stays in another place, growing a sad beard and ignoring Quinn’s phone calls. His sister Wendy (Tina Fey) calls him to tell him that their father Mort has just died.
She is in the hospital room with their mother Hillary (Jane Fonda), who is trying to remove the tubing from her dead husband. The Altmans gather together for the funeral. There, Judd sees Wendy’s husband Barry (Aaron Lazar), who is too busy on his phone to notice the world around him. Judd also reunites with his older brother Paul (Corey Stoll) and his wife Annie (Kathryn Hahn). The Altmans’ childhood friend Charles Grodner (Ben Schwartz), AKA Boner is the rabbi speaking at the funeral. In the middle of his eulogy, the youngest Altman, Phillip (Adam Driver), rides in blasting a DMX song and running into the service loudly to hug his mom and siblings.
Hillary tells her four children that their father wanted them to sit shiva, meaning they must stay for a whole week with each other. Phillip gets a phone call and goes outside to bring a woman inside. Her name is Tracy (Connie Britton), and she is his therapist. She is a fan of Hillary, as Hillary is known for writing a tell-all book called “Cradle and All”, which overshares a lot of the siblings’ childhood, like Wendy being sexually active and Paul masturbating. Guests come over and the Altmans tell everybody what they’ve been doing since then.
Paul and Annie have been trying to conceive for a while, and it’s revealed that Annie used to be Judd’s girlfriend in high school. Also, only Wendy knows about Judd’s divorce, though he keeps telling people she’s not there because she has a bulging disk. Judd drives to his family’s sporting goods store. There, he finds Horry Callen (Timothy Olyphant), an ex-boyfriend of Wendy’s that suffered a brain injury, forcing him to stay home with his mother Linda (Debra Monk). Judd also reunites with Penny Moore (Rose Byrne), a girl that used to have a crush on him. Judd drives Horry home.
The next morning, Judd wakes up to hear Paul and Phillip arguing over the sharing of the sporting goods store. Paul has the majority of the store but Phillip wants to combine the remaining siblings shares and enter the business as well. The two of them get into a physical fight that pushes Judd into a glass cabinet, leaving him with some glass in his head. The family later has dinner and shares their favorite stories of Mort. Wendy tells one of when she first got her period. Judd cannot think of a single memory to share. Shiva time then comes and Wendy drunkenly keeps bugging Judd to tell the truth about Quinn. They argue until one lady asks Judd about Quinn, and he loudly admits that she cheated and that he’s divorcing her. Also, Tracy notices Phillip talking to a younger ex-girlfriend, making her feel challenged.
The siblings continue to bond rather reluctantly, between going to drinks and joining with Penny, and having to sit shiva. Phillip drives Judd around in his car and laments being seen as the family screw-up. He drives recklessly, making Judd nervous. Phillip abandons him at the skating center where Penny works and goes to sleep with his ex-girlfriend. Meanwhile Penny and Judd listen to Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”.
Judd is surprised when Quinn shows up since he won’t answer her calls. She starts to feel sick and goes to throw up. She admits that she’s pregnant and that Judd is the father. She knows it’s not Wade because he is sterile. They are concerned because Quinn has already had one miscarriage. Phillip finds out about the pregnancy as well. Judd later goes to Penny’s house to talk and ends up sleeping with her. Phillip reveals the pregnancy over breakfast, to Judd’s displeasure. Annie angrily breaks several dishes, upset over still not having kids.
The family goes to temple for a service. Judd and Phillip sneak out to smoke joints Judd finds in his father’s suit jacket. Paul later joins them. Together, the brothers finally spend time and laugh together without fighting. Then the sprinklers go off and they get soaked. Boner scolds the brothers for this, but they just make fun of him. Annie goes downstairs to find Judd so that he can try and get her pregnant. He refuses. He goes outside and walks past Wendy and Barry arguing. At night, she joins Judd on the roof of the house to express her remorse over causing the accident that caused Horry’s brain injury and that she’ll never love Barry the way she loved Horry.
During another shiva sitting, the family hears the baby monitor kicking in to the sound of Paul and Annie having sex. Phillip lets it keep playing until Linda takes out the backup battery. Judd goes on a date with Penny and gets a phone call from Quinn, who says she is bleeding. This forces Judd to admit to Penny that Quinn is pregnant. She lets him go to her, but she is upset. Judd gets to the hospital to be with Quinn, only for Wade to show up moments later.
The nurse is able to find the baby’s heartbeat. Outside in the waiting room, Judd confronts Wade about Quinn sleeping with him, leading to them nearly physically fighting. The security guards pull them apart until Wendy comes in and settles everything. She even punches Wade in the face. Outside, Judd sees Wade’s car and gets a group of frat boys to push the car upside down after he says that Wade slept with his wife. Wade goes outside and sees the car. He admits that Judd was one of his few friends, even though Judd didn’t see him as a friend and he’s abandoning Quinn.
This Is Where I Leave You
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Starring: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll, Kathryn Hahn, Connie Britton, Dax Shepard, Debra Monk
Screenplay by: Jonathan Tropper, Jonathan Tropper
MPAA Rating: R for language, sexual content and some drug use.
Production Design by: Ford Wheeler
Cinematography by: Terry Stacey
Film Editing by: Dean Zimmerman
Costume Design by: Susan Lyall
Set Decoration by: Chryss Hionis
Music by: Michael Giacchino
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: September 19, 2014
Visits: 101
