Movie Review: The Guilt Trip

The Guilt Trip (2012)

As inventor Andy Brewster is about to embark on the road trip of a lifetime, a quick stop at his mom's house turns into an unexpected cross-country voyage with her along for the ride.   Short synopsis of The Guilt Trip taken from IMDb.com 

"Does that say Tapas?  I love Tapas." Of course, I'm referring to the scene where Streisand and Seth Rogan pull off the road at the topless bar in Tennessee when they think they have a flat tire.  The Guilt Trip is full of little touches like these, that anyone who has a older Jewish female relative will immediately relate to.  In my case, it is my mother-in-law.  But I got it worse, because she is of Jewish ancestry, Italian, and Mexican.  Talk about the triple threat.

On the other hand, I noticed there was some stuff in the trailer that didn't make it into the film.  Like the part where Streisand crosses three lanes of traffic to follow GPS directions.  There was a funny scene in the credits (which, by the way, were surprisingly quick to pass compared to most movies these days) where she complains that the GPS is talking about distance in feet and she's going miles per hour.

Streisand's first onscreen role was in 1968's Funny Girl.  Since then, she has starred in at least twenty films, and been involved int he production of quite a few more (IMDb.com has the details). / Source: altfq.com

I can infer from the length of the credits, as well as The Guilt Trip's contents, that this is a fairly low-budget film for today's market, and yet it was pretty amusing.  As noted, Streisand's character reminded me of my mother-in-law.  Always with something to say; always "on."  I guess that's how you'd put it.  I can understand why Rogen's character, as the son, would be annoyed by it all.

There was a little bit of language, including one f-bomb during the inevitable fight between mom and son.  This is followed by a scene in which Rogen's character has to go and "rescue" his mother, who has had too much to drink.  This scene made me think that if some guy had grabbed my mom's arm when she said she was done drinking and she'd told him to let go, I'd have knocked him down, and not the other way around.  No such thing as measured response in a situation like that, in my book.  But it made for a semi-funny "bruise" scene that followed.  I suppose they were just playing the scene to character.  That or I have a primal violent streak.  Me?  Never...

They've been doing it for time immemorial, for sure. / Source: condenaststore.com

I actually thought The Guilt Trip managed to never overdo itself, and stayed at a nice pitch throughout.  It was predictable, but not cliché.  Does that make sense?  And yet not predictable at all in some places, like the steak-eating contest (that might have gone for the gross-out throw up scene and it didn't - kudos for that).  Worth the price of admission.  And that was regular theater ticket cost, to boot!  So that says where I'm at on this one.

Over-all, The Guilt Trip was a good date film, and proof that movies can still be made without over-the-top special effects or gratuitous content.  I was impressed, and if  I'd paid full price theater ticket prices, I wouldn't have begrudged it (even though we're still so poor right now).

The parting comment:

It has nothing to do with the movie.  I just felt like hearing it, for some reason.