THE GUILT TRIP DVD (2012)

SYNOPSIS: Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen are the perfect comedy duo as they embark on one mother of a road trip! The plan for a quick stop at Mom's takes a sudden turn when an impulse compels Andy (Seth Rogen) to invite his mother, Joyce (Barbra Streisand), on an 8-day, 3,000 mile, journey across the country. But the farther they go, the closer they get and Andy may realize that they have more in common than he ever imagined.

MOVIE REVIEW:

The occasional slim, occasional chubby comedian Seth Rogen might not project the impression of an ideal son given he is known for playing potty mouthed, weed-smoking laidback bums on the big screen.

In “The Guilt Trip” however, he plays a nerdy young scientist, Andy who has just invented an environmental friendly cleaning solution. On a road trip across various states to sell his product, he invited his widowed mother, Joyce (Barbra Streisand) along with him. In actual fact, he is just trying to reunite Joyce with his old-lover in San Francisco.

Inspired by screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s (“Crazy Stupid Love”) own road trip with his mom, this Streisand-Rogen vehicle doesn’t break any new ground or particularly side-splitting even it’s a pair up of two comedians from different generations. Rogen started his trade in raunchy Apatow comedies while Streisand for the uninitiated is one of the State’s most talented women entertainers. The former makes a 360 degrees turn as a mild-mannered man and playing against Streisand’s overbearing mother, the two has incredible chemistry together even though the script feels almost like an indie flick at times.

Streisand is absolutely adorable as Joyce. She collects frogs, she puts tap water into bottles and calls it bottled water and she can eat a 72 ounce steak and she is always worrying about her son’s lack of clean pants and underwear. It’s so typical of a mother and Streisand nails it perfectly. Rogen’s character has a big fight with his mom in the middle of the movie which allows the comedian to shine and his selling of his product to a shopping network towards the end showcases his trademark humour though heavily subdued of course.

Rather than spicing up the material, Anne Fletcher who also did the box-office hit, “The Proposal” instead relegate the unfolding of the story to the two actors. Some of the gags have the potential to develop further liked the strip joint sequence which see mother and son trapped in by the snow and subsequently seeking refuge at the house of Andy’s ex and now married girlfriend. But the scene shortly spiral to mere awkwardness and nothing more.

Yet, you got to give “The Guilt Trip” some credit for giving audience a journey of a sweet, charming bliss of a mother and son relationship. This is Fogelman’s love letter to his late mom and I can’t say I’m not touched. Those little things do matter after all.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

This is a clean, unexceptional DVD transfer and for a talky movie, the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is more than sufficient.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee