Jeff, Who Lives at Home premiered in Toronto last year, was picked up by Paramount and will be released through their specialty banner Paramount Vantage this weekend. I’ve already skipped one screening of the film, primarily due to scheduling issues, but a second screening is coming up tomorrow night and I’m still not sure I want to go. What’s the point?
The film is directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, the guys behind movies such as The Puffy Chair, Cyrus and Baghead. All three of those films seem to run together despite their genre differences, and to add another one to the pile just seems pointless.
I just watched 85 seconds of the trailer for Jeff, Who Lives at Home and I’m already bored. It’s the same old writing techniques, the same obvious observational humor and the same old characters making the same stupid mistakes, if not only marginally different ones. I couldn’t get more than 85 seconds in before I had decided I didn’t need to see it. And this isn’t because the Duplass brothers are lacking for talent.
Jay and Mark Duplass are smart guys, their dialogue is typically spot on, but they are so intent on telling you what’s going on rather than just letting it happen. A perfect example comes around the 1:20 mark when Ed Helms, playing the brother to Jason Segel’s titular Jeff, says he needs to gather information as it appears his wife (Judy Greer) is cheating on him. He needs to gather the intel “so he’ll have the upper hand later.”
Admittedly, I have no idea how this scene will turn out, but should there be a confrontation between Helms and his wife, as I suspect there will be, or if it all ends up being a misunderstanding, what’s the point in verbalizing this? Wouldn’t he have the upper hand without actually saying he’d have the upper hand. It’s this kind of punchline that seems so worthless and the Duplass films are loaded with them.
Then there’s all the running, finding yourself, finding your family and it all seems as if it has been done before. I suspect Helms’ character will learn from Segel’s even though Segel has been living in his mother’s home for all these years and should be the more sheltered, less wise character of the two.
Then there’s the music, just doo-doo-dooing along. And, of course, the Porsche Helms couldn’t afford ends up smashed into a tree. Will he run after his wife following that moment, shouting at her he loves her and how material things don’t matter, only she matters? Maybe, who knows…
