I
know I'm pretty late on this one, but I just watched The Guilt Trip,
and I need to vent a little bit. Now, of course, you might be saying
to yourself, “there was no way this snarky bastard was going to
like this movie, so why is he even reviewing it in the first place?”
And you'd be absolutely right. I didn't like this movie at all, and I
didn't expect to either, not being a 50-something housewife or a gay
baby boomer still weirdly obsessed with Barbara Streisand movies
despite there never being a good one, and not being one of those
insufferable people who think Seth Rogan's funny for some reason.
This was not a movie meant for me, and it was as inaccessible to me
as it possibly could have been. But I still watched it, and I can't
unwatch it, so I might as well talk about it.
The
Guilt Trip follows a down on his luck inventor making a last ditch
effort cross country trip to pitch his product to the nation's
various big box stores, taking his nagging mother along for the ride
after he learns that she once dated the president of a major company
he wants to pitch to. I wanted to end that sentence with “and wacky
hi jinks ensue” if only to be cheeky, but for the life of me, I
can't even honestly do that. I lack the words to express to you in
the appropriate scope the vast amount of nothing that happens in this
thing that claims to be a crazy road movie. I expected it to fail as
comedy, but I didn't expect it to go so far out of its way to assault
me with how painfully unfunny it was.
To
say that it doesn't try hard is missing the point. This movie tries
hard at not trying hard. The vast majority of the action takes place
in the economy car head on shots that monopolize the trailer, as if
to flaunt its abdication of the responsibility to be even a little
bit funny set forth by a long and noble tradition of road movies and
buddy comedies. Our two main characters seemingly improvise the vast
majority of their dialogue in a dead pan back and forth so dry and
emotionally draining that I had to turn off the movie at least four
times just to build up the energy to continue. Oh how I wish I hadn't
bothered. Damn my commitment to actually finishing even the worst
movies in order to provide an honest review, as if I couldn't fake my
way through one after watching the first twenty minutes of this
garbage.
At
about the half way mark, the movie gives up all pretense of claiming
to be a comedy and then seems to try its hand at drama as the
relationship between mother and son turns sour. We get the emotional
blowout as secrets are revealed and long simmering anxieties bubble
to the surface. And fuck if I couldn't care less about any of it.
When we finally get back to the “comedy” in a scene where the
mother tries to eat a giant steak in order to get it for free at a
restaurant in Texas, it was the one time my hopes were actually
piqued, not because I thought it might be amusing, but because I
thought that just maybe the film might take a darker turn where she
choked to death, causing her son to drive his rental car off of the
nearest bridge out of guilt, revealing the horrible twist meaning of
the title. This was the movie I was writing in my head leading into
the climax.
So
how should I bring all this together into a recommendation? As I said
before, I was never going to like this film, and it didn't disappoint
in being disappointing. Maybe you are the kind of person to whom this
movie is designed to appeal to. Perhaps you are so bereft of a life
worth living that this hollow mess is just the thing to make your day
better. But even then, I have to imagine that just sitting in a
darkened room and staring off blankly into the middle distance while
the void that is your mind ticks sadly away until your inevitable
death would be more emotionally fulfilling and intellectual
stimulating, not to mention cheaper. I would succumb to tears if my
heart were not so hardened by the experience. In other words, this
movie is terrible, and you should probably just skip it.
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