Review: Jeff, Who Lives at Home
I missed Jeff, Who Lives at Home when it screened at last year's Austin Film Festival, so was happy to check out a preview screening during my short break between SXSW activities. After some projection issues -- which made the audience at the Arbor giggle and obscured the starting quote before anyone had a chance to read it -- got resolved, the latest movie from Jay and Mark Duplass began. The viewer first views our protagonist Jeff through a talking head as he dissects why Signs is such a great movie (and reminded me that Abigail Breslin was in it). This on-the-toilet rumination is not as insignificant as it might seem.
Jeff, played by Jason Segel, is an unemployed stoner who lives in his mother's basement. One assumes his days tend to bleed into each other, but this day kicks into gear when he answers a cryptic wrong-number call. Jeff believes this is a sign and strives to interpret the message.
Meanwhile his mom Sharon (Susan Sarandon), who frets that her sons are "assholes," wants one thing for her birthday: for Jeff to fix a louvre on a cabinet door. She talks to her friend Carol (Rae Dawn Chong) at work about Sharon's new secret admirer, and Carol responds, "I'm super jelly." Regardless of this ridiculous phrase, which I've never heard anyone use before, points go to Jeff, Who Lives at Home for an honest portrayal of women over 40! Sarandon's Sharon is disappointed in her current life, yet still slightly optimistic and hopeful. She's a joy to watch as her eyes light up at the possibility of new romance.
Jeff's circuitous route to find wood glue, as well as the signs he chooses to follow, has him running into his abrasive older brother Pat (Ed Helms). Pat has just made a ridiculously extravagant purchase without input from his exasperated wife Linda (Judy Greer!). During the breakfast scene between the married couple, we are able to infer the lack of communication between the couple and the trouble their marriage is in.
The death, years previous, of Sharon's husband/the brothers' father still affects their outlook and behavior. In a graveyard scene between the two brothers (which reminded me of a vaguely similar scene in Segel's sitcom How I Met Your Mother), Segel's Jeff yells at his brother, "You and mom will never understand me, and you're all I have left." This not-always-smooth relationship between the family serves as the real core of Jeff, Who Lives at Home.
The unpredictable storyline follows Jeff, his mom, and his brother through a single day. I assumed Jeff, Who Lives at Home would be a slow-moving sort of stoner bro-flick, but Mark and Jay Duplass throw in some twists and turns that I never saw coming. Thanks to the deceptively simple performances by the cast, the viewer becomes invested in these nuanced characters.
Quirky scoring by Michael Andrews accompanies the antics of the characters during their day. Frankly, I'd describe the whole movie as quirky, and I mean that in the best way. Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a wonderfully sweet blend of the comedic and poignant.
Austin connections: Mark and Jay Duplass are former Austinites. [Editor's note: At the AFF screening, they claimed that Jeff was inspired by many of their slacker post-college friends in Austin.]