There comes a time when every great comedic actor puts on the serious hat for a movie. This time, it’s Jason Segel’s turn.
“Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” is a well-executed movie about family and destiny. Written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, the movie is a dramedy about a 30-year-old slacker who lives in his mother’s basement named Jeff (Jason Segel, “The Muppets”), who is obsessed with finding his own destiny. Every day he watches movies and smokes pot. One day, when he is sent to buy wood glue by his mother, played by Susan Sarandon (“The Lovely Bones”), he ends up spending the day with his brother Pat, played by Ed Helms (“The Hangover”), tracking down Pat’s adulterous wife Linda, played by Judy Greer (“The Descendents”).
Jeff may be a slacker, but he believes that everyone including himself has a destiny. Destiny is a prevalent theme throughout the movie and it works well into the story. Fate brings Jeff and Pat together to search for Pat’s wife. In the end, fate brings Jeff’s family back from the brink of ruin.
What you believe your fate to be may not be the outcome you were expecting.
Jeff sees signs everywhere for what he believes are for his destiny, until it becomes clear that his fate is not what he thought it’d be at the end of the day. You may think life is taking you one path, but you might be on a different path entirely.
Segel carries the movie as he gives a great job at being sincere and throws out all the stops. Segel and Helms are very believable as brothers who don’t exactly get along well.
Greer is great as Helms’s wife and the two make you believe that they have a failing marriage. Sarandon as the disgruntled mother is just great. None of these actors phoned it in for this movie. Ed Helms plays a great passive-aggressive, non-confrontational husband who is losing control of his marriage.
The movie’s writing weaves the theme of destiny in and out of the story. A great blend of humor and drama, the movie has quite a few laughs contrasted with heartfelt moments of real life.
The cinematography powerfully takes what was written and brings it to life on screen, which allows the audience to know what the characters are feeling. For example, you get a clear sense of what the characters are thinking when the camera zooms in tight on their face as they emote. The steady, handheld feel of the image allows for a greater sense of realism. With no grand sweeping hero shots of the blockbuster, this movie is filmed on a very personable level and allows for the actors to shine.
This movie is an intimate exposé of the lives of these four characters on a beautiful day. The beauty of the day contrasts with the terrible truth that Linda is cheating on Pat and that Jeff is a slacker who believes in some destiny that no one else seems to care about. But by the end, Jeff is an unlikely hero and everyone learns to appreciate and live for today.
“Jeff, Who Lives at Home” is a small heartfelt movie that will make you laugh and make you think at the same time.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
