Where to watch The Guilt Trip
2 1/2 Stars
Andy is an organic engineer who has created a revolutionary cleaning product. Scio-clean is the safest, least harmful household cleaning supply in existence. Unfortunately, Andy is a less than stellar salesman, unable to get through his bumbling pitch without boring audiences. The constant rejection has left him shaken as he sets out on a cross-country drive that will allow the young inventor to pitch his product to the top retailers in the nation. Before he starts out on the eight-day trek, Andy makes a visit home to New Jersey to see his over-protective and slightly neurotic mother, Joyce (Barbra Streisand).
During his short stay Andy discovers his mother had a love affair with a man days before she married his father and conceived him. Joyce assures him that the man is not Andy’s biological father, but he is his namesake. Andy, in a fit of shock researches the gentleman, now in his 70’s and running a marketing firm in San Francisco. So he invites Joyce to accompany him on the road trip in the hopes of reuniting her with her long-lost love. First the pair must voyage across the vast American landscape, encountering utterly predictable obstacles and outcomes with stops for blatant product placement.
It may then come as a surprise that I’m giving this movie a mild recommendation. It is a harmless retread of Planes, Trains and Automobiles with a touch of Tommy Boy, that doesn’t over stay its welcome unlike the recent family comedy Parental Guidance. I liked The Guilt Trip, with a few nips and tucks it could become a perennial holiday family favorite. The kind of film that wouldn’t suffer being viewed in twenty-minute increments on TNT. Luckily the winning screen chemistry from the leads is so entertaining it rises this sentimental fluff into the realm of ‘cute’. There I go with that damn adjective, again.
Director: Anne Fletcher
Stars: Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen, Adam Scott