Jeff, Who Lives at Home
2012
Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass

Former mumblecore darlings Jay and Mark Duplass continue their move into the mainstream with Jeff, Who Lives at Home, a film that removes even more of the vestiges of the mumblecore beginnings still obvious in their previous film Cyrus, but unfortunately also removes some of the quality along with it.  Jason Segel plays Jeff, a slacker waiting to discover his destiny and who may have finally found it after receiving a “wrong number” call.  Following the perceived signs of fate leads him to his brother Pat (Ed Helms) and the discovery of Pat’s wife (Judy Greer) out with another man.  As the two follow her, tensions between the equally immature siblings increase, and meanwhile their mother (Susan Sarandon) finds herself the target of a secret admirer at her office.  Despite being promoted as a comedy thanks to its leads, the film leans closer to dramedy; there are certainly laughs, but they’re sprinkled throughout the film’s quiet, emotional drama.  The best adjective to describe the story is sweet.  It’s easy to cheer on the ever-optimistic Jeff on his quest to find his destiny (the film opens with Jeff explaining how the film Signs inspires him), and for an indie film like this, the ending is surprising for being unambiguously uplifting.  Of course, that ending and the story that leads to it can also seem overly silly and schmaltzy, especially from filmmakers coming from a particularly realist tradition, but if you can avoid being too cynical about the proceedings, then they can be quite entertaining.  Unfortunately, although there are funny moments and emotional moments, the film lacks the really big laughs and subtly powerful emotional honesty of Cyrus or even The Puffy Chair.  Similarly, the film’s actors all give commendable performances, but all have had greater impact elsewhere.  It’s a particular shame that Sarandon’s section of the film seems entirely tangential to the main plot and is never connected in any meaningful way to the ideas of fate and destiny that would otherwise seem central to the film.  The connection instead is that all three members of the family learn to take a risk for the sake of breaking up the stagnancy of their lives, which is fine, but at least tie her story in with something more than the fact that she’s their mom.  Visually, the film is the closest to mainstream style of any of their films, but still retains the freedom of handheld camera without the shake, and plenty of zooms.  Actually, too many zooms.  An exhausting amount of zooms, at least one per shot and often more than one per shot, usually without any real storytelling purpose.  It’s nice that they have those zooms as something to help differentiate them from other filmmakers (they use them plenty in their previous films, too), but it’s rough on the eyes to do so much readjusting, the same as it is for excessive shaky-cam.  Jeff, Who Lives at Home is an enjoyable and pleasant movie experience, but it’s not a particularly impressive one.  The Duplass brothers have impressed before though, so I’m sure they’ve still got it in them to impress again.

Rating: ☀☀☀
Three out of five suns