On the road with Barbra ...

THE GUILT TRIP, 2012. My first Seth Rogen movie! Anne Fletcher directs a predictable comedy where Seth sets out on a cross-country trip and takes his mother along. The whole interest here is that mom is Barbra Streisand. I find these kind of comedies dispiriting, particularly when the likes of De Niro or Streisand are involved, its lazy take-the-money-and-run work for veterans who surely don’t need to end up in stuff like this. Seth is apparently funnier in his other roles – but hey, what do I know, he has about 6 movies in pre- and post-production according to IMDb! 

 

Streisand really comes across like Seth’s grand-mother, being about 40 years older than him (rather like Streep being too old for her mom role in MAMMA MIA!). The early dinner scene is amusing with Miriam Margolyes and Kathy Najimy, how could it not be with those two? - but they seem to have no interaction with Streisand .... 

This is a high-concept one-joke "comedy" as we observe mother and son bickering across America as she also traces the man she might have married and realises what might have been was not meant to be. Mom seems oblivious to her son’s needs and that he is now an adult capable of managing without her incessant interfering. The joke wears rather thin but thankfully the film is not too long. 

As a great Streisand admirer back in the 60s and 70s (with all those early albums and who saw FUNNY GIRL on the stage in London in 1966 when I was 20) it seems odd seeing her old lady routine now in material like this. 
Streisand though was so controlling about every aspect of her movies, how come now she does films like this and those Fokker movies surrendering control to others. These sit-com movies are not even worth her while but presumably earn her lots more money as she tries to connect to a younger dumbed-down audience ?

See Streisand label for lots more Barbra ...