All Sharon wants for her birthday from her slacker unemployed 30 year-old son Jeff who lives in her basement, is that he gets off the couch and catches the bus to the hardware store to get some wood glue to fix a broken shutter. Jeff, a big lump of a man, is more than happy to let his life drift by as long as he gets his daily fix of re-watching ‘SIGNS’ (the M. Night Shyamalan film) which supplies his dubious rationale for there being order in the chaos.
The moment Jeff sets off to do his mother’s bidding he is convinced that the whole world is sending him clues pointing to his destiny. The first one leads him to be attacked by strangers, and then he bumps into Pat his smoothie older brother who seizes the opportunity to start lecturing Jeff again about getting his act together, although he himself is stuck in a lousy job he hates and with a marriage that seems to be falling apart, and to top it all he’s leased a Porsche that he can totally not afford.
As the brothers argue they spot Pat’s wife Linda passing by with another man, and the two brothers start following her on a manic wild goose chase to see if she is having an affair.
Meanwhile Sharon, who’s been divorced and single for years, is beavering away in her monotonous 9-5 office job and is suddenly getting instant messages on her computer from a secret admirer in her office.
Somehow by the end of the day they all end up in the same place with their stories converging too, and it all suddenly makes sense. Especially to Jeff, as it turns out the signs were right. and that this is his destiny.
This wonderful wee comedy is the latest work of the multi-talented Duplasses brothers who’s work has come along such a long way since their debut of the quirky ‘THE PUFFY CHAIR’, and so much more accessible than their mumblecore movie ‘BAGHEAD’ (which I really loved). It is still an edgy indie movie but the cast they have assembled makes it all seem so much more ‘grown-up’. Susan Sarandon is superb as frustrated Sharon who knows she should make Jeff grow up: Ed Helms is the annoying brother Pat who’s fondness for lucking at Hooters every day speaks volumes; Judy Greer (who stole her small scene from George Clooney in ‘THE DESCENDENTS’ ) was the passive/aggressive Linda. But Jason Siegel as Jeff is the most unlikely leading man ever, but was wonderfully convincing as the oversized big kid who so deserved to be proved right especially as we were all rooting for him by the end.
Refreshing and farcical, it’s rather a very pleasant anti-dote to all the blockbuster comedies that Hollywood churn out that these days and that are, without exception, singularly unfunny.
★★★★★★★★
