This Is Where I Leave You

This Is Where I Leave You (2014) begins with a funeral. Their father has died, and his last request is that his children sit together in the house for seven days. Four siblings come back; each has a crisis of their own and none wants to tell the others. The source is Jonathan Tropper's 2009 novel, which he adapted himself. The structure has a name, shiva, the seven day mourning period observed in Jewish tradition after a death. The whole idea is enforced proximity; nobody can leave and they have to talk. Shawn Levy directed. The cast is large: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Corey Stoll, with Jane Fonda as the mother. Its best quality is how real the relationships between the siblings feel, with arguments left over from years ago and nobody having changed. It runs 103 minutes. Good for: family comedy, ensemble playing, and light films about grief. Less good for: four separate stories mean none of them deepens, and most are tied off hurriedly in the last half hour. The women exist inside their brothers' stories. The bitterness of the novel is softened.