Jeff (Jason Segal) is a pothead who lives in the basement of his mother’s house and does little except smoke pot, watch informercials, and opine on what in his opinion is the greatest movie of all time, Signs. He believes that signs are everywhere, and if we learn to see them, we will discover our true purpose. He gets a mistaken phone call by someone looking for “Kevin”…and Jeff decides that this is instead an extremely significant sign.
His brother, Pat (Ed Helms), is a paint salesman whose marriage isn’t going so well and who isn’t helping himself out by taking 5 beer lunches at Hooters. He’s also bought a Porsche not only without the approval of his wife…but he might have killed his marriage by doing so. Their mother, Sharon (Susan Sarandon), is unhappy because she hates her kids and there’s no spark left in her life.
Movies are always about people being in the right place at the right time and benefiting from crazy, impossible coincidences. Jeff, Who Lives At Home out-and-out embraces this conceit. Jeff follows the signs, sometimes with great consequences, sometimes with terrible consequences. Pat doesn’t listen to the signs at all — and comes to believe that maybe Jeff is on to something. And their mom realizes that maybe everyone and everything is exactly where they’re supposed to be in this life.
In addition to being philosophical, believe it or not…this movie is very, very funny.
Okay, not in the rip-roaring “Did I just laugh at that?” way 21 Jump Street was last week. But it’s a comedy of a couple of very strange, and yet very ordinary, people getting through their day in the way that they’ve become accustomed to, and how in one day everything gets wildly shaken up. When Darin looked up the directors on IMDb and saw that they were the ones who did Cyrus, we both said, “Of course.” Those two movies fit together perfectly.
It’s crazy how movies we go to see in the theater really come down to money or art. That’s it. That’s the choice we make every week when we go to see a movie these days. Do yourself a favor and see one that isn’t just about getting the sequel green lighted.