The Guilt Trip

The Guilt Trip casts Seth Rogen as Andrew Brewster, a struggling inventor whose efforts at selling his latest product, a cleaning agent called Scioclean, necessitate a road trip across the United States. After discovering that his mother (Barbra Streisand’s Joyce) gave up her first love to marry his father, Andrew surreptitiously plans a reunion and invites Joyce along on the journey – with the trip that ensues naturally rife with comedic episodes and emotional revelations. It’s a familiar yet promising setup that’s employed to curiously subdued effect by filmmaker Anne Fletcher, as the director, working from Dan Fogelman’s screenplay, has infused The Guilt Trip with a persistently low-key feel that’s compounded by a continuous lack of laughs – which is unusual, to say the least, given the presence of several seemingly can’t-miss set pieces (including a Great Outdoors-like steak-eating competition). The movie’s relatively watchable atmosphere, then, is due almost entirely to Rogen’s charismatic turn as the beleaguered central character, with the actor’s affable work heightened by his palpable chemistry with costar Streisand – which ultimately does ensure that the film is at its best when focused on the pair’s conversations and arguments. It is, as a result, fairly disappointing to note that the movie’s heartfelt moments fall completely flat, with Fletcher’s less-than-energetic sensibilities preventing the viewer from working up any real attachment to or affection for either of the protagonists. The end result is an almost passable endeavor that could’ve been a lot worse (and a lot better, admittedly), with the missed-opportunity atmosphere especially disheartening given the potential of both the premise and the cast.

** out of ****