Shawn Levy's 2014 film This is Where I Leave You provides a bittersweet story regarding the Altman family and it's struggle to find its identity consequent to the father's death. The director likely intended to provide viewers with a light and somewhat predictable movie in an attempt to address the complex idea of a dysfunctional family. The film has all the typical ingredients for a dark comedy and at times viewers are probable to identify with characters as they realize that the film presents a situation that most people are hesitant about even considering (even with the fact that most individuals are going to experience it at one point in their lives).
Some viewers can feel that the topic has been discussed in a series of cases, with numerous films addressing the idea of a family funeral revealing secrets about the person who died and about individuals attending the event. The truth is that the film's apparent shallowness is one of the things making it possible for viewers to comprehend the complex ideas it puts across. This is Where I Leave You brings on very common subject (that of a dysfunctional family) and proceeds to address all the less visible elements that viewers are likely to be interested in.
As the storyline progresses the motion picture becomes more and more focused on the idea of a family working as a tool to improve people's lives. All of the siblings attending the funeral are obviously disturbed and their mother, in spite of her profession as a celebrity psychologist, seems to have a limited ability to address her children's problems. The family is composed out of stereotypical characters, as we have Jason Bateman playing a serious family man coming home one day to find his wife cheating on him with his boss, eldest son Paul (Corey Stoll) and his wife Annie (Kathryn Hahn) are successful but unable to get pregnant, Tina Fey is playing Wendy, the older sister who is fun but is always trying to help her brothers, and the youngest brother, Phillip, a man who wants his family to take him seriously.
Considering the overall nature...
Even with this, the motion picture actually goes on to address some of the most uncomfortable ideas regarding family life. It does not attempt to glorify the concept of a family or to present viewers with a story where everyone is eventually going to be happy. Instead it encourages people to accept that families can and will create a lot of issues in one's life and that the respective person might and should attempt to distance themselves from their families. This does not mean that families are bad, however, as it only m eans that families are as human as something can possibly be. Even with all of the problems that they bring on, families are able to help individuals through hardship and to make them realize when they go through life failing to follow their hearts.
Phillip constantly seems to treat things superficially and is a narcissistic and detached family member. As the storyline progresses, however, it becomes visible that he is in fact interested in influencing his brothers to see him as an adult rather than as the child they've been used to several years before. This also makes it possible for viewers to look beyond appearances and understand the man's complexity. His brothers appear to comprehend this and decide to provide him with the opportunity to work in the sporting goods store that the Altman children have inherited. As previously said, this influences viewers to ignore appearances and to understand the family unity that emerges from a series of ideas, ranging from the father's death to brotherly love that is initially reluctant and eventually manages to reach the protagonists' hearts.
Paul and Judd themselves feel a type of divergence as the former believes that the latter is trying to seduce his wife. The reality is that Judd and Quinn actually try to comfort each-other as a result of the difficult moments the family is experiencing, with the event having nothing to do with romance. Another intriguing concept about…
