JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME (Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass). 83 minutes. Opens Friday (March 16). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NN
Having introduced Hollywood stars into their universe of awkward, socially squirmy comedy with Cyrus, Jay and Mark Duplass go full studio with this tale of a 30-year-old layabout (Jason Segel) whose conviction that the universe is sending him signals leads him on a convoluted journey through Baton Rouge accompanied by his dickish older brother (Ed Helms).
The Duplasses are great at tiny flashes of character-based humour, and Segel’s lumbering presence is used to terrific effect – as is a marvellous Judy Greer as the possibly unfaithful wife of Helms’s character.
But their style just doesn’t lend itself to a studio project, and the atonal influence of producer Jason Reitman can be felt all over the picture’s second half. (No other filmmaker relies on pop music to sell emotional catharsis as nakedly as Reitman – though in fairness, it often works in his own movies.)
The result is a film trapped irresolvably between the idiosyncrasies it loves and the desire to attract a mass audience.
