-
Recent releases:
- Mothers' Instinct
- Sweet East, The
- Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire
- Immaculate
- Roaring Twenties, The (reissue)
- Soul
- Dune: part two
- American Star
- Dune: Part 1 (reissue)
- Jerry & Marge Go Large
- Argylle
- Forever Young
- Jackdaw
- All of Us Strangers
- Holdovers, The
- Mean Girls
- Poor Things
- One Life
- Ferrari
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Guilt Trip, The
Stars: Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen, Brett Cullen, Kathy Najimy, Colin Hanks, Miriam Margolyes, Rose Abdoo, Adam Scott, Ari Graynor, Brandon Keener
Director: Anne Fletcher
Critics on both sides of the Pond have been a little unfair on this Mother's Day-friendly comedy which is full of amusing ideas, but just lacks anything like a decent script. Even so, there are still occasionally both funny and touching moments, and the co-stars play against each other well and show a fair amount of warmth together: you'd like to see them again in something better.
Rogen plays an inventor about to embark on a long road trip with the idea of selling his new organic cleanser at the end of it. Streisand is his mother and in some ways it's a clever reversal of expectations, in that this archetypal Jewish mom doesn't foist herself on her son for the journey; if anything, it's the other way round.
After a while, though, their company does get a little grating, and you long for a colourful array of supporting characters that the screenplay simply doesn't provide. Even so, Streisand is a lot more fun than she was in the Fockers films, and Rogen switches roles nicely to play the opposite of his usual loudmouth.
One footnote: try to avoid seeing the trailer. Pretty well all the most amusing moments are in it.
David Quinlan
USA 2013. UK Distributor: Paramount. Colour by deluxe.
95 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.
Review date: 08 Mar 2013