The Guilt Trip

This film is packaged to look ordinary; a date movie. The title, "The Guilt Trip" adds to that, whereas the title has several possible meanings. Then the cast: Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen, two of our most versatile and confusing actors, one gets into this film expecting a typical, safe Hollywood comedy where all the best bits are in the trailer.Instead we get a script as clever as something Sorkin would write and we see two of the finest performances these two have ever given.Rogen is a remarkable actor, making every moment honest and in no way a catagory actor. He's a character actor who belongs in lead rles like Dustin Hoffman or Meryl Streep. And his Oscar is coming. He plays Andy, an unmarried scientist who is marketing a new green cleaning product. He's set up pitch meetings at corporations from New York to San Francisco. His ability to wow them in the board room is like Rosie O'Donnell ballroom dancing with Woody Allen. No one's buying it. But he's got a heart of gold and Rogen's eyes show it with every blink and every blush. He has arranged to take this cross country trip with his mother, a widow since Andy was a boy, and she nags him about finding a nice girl as much as he nags her to find a nice man. Rogen's in the A list here, in a two character film with a living legend and he not only makes it look easy, he knocks it out of the park.Then there's Streisand who, in the course of a 50 year career as a superstar never delivers exactly what we expect. We've seen Streisand from "Hello, gorgeous" to "Eunice? That's a person named Eunice??" We know to expect high quality from Streisand no matter what she does and occassionally it gets too easy to just expect that.So Barbra Streisand in "The Guilt Trip." Delivers top quality again but we're surprised because we don't get what we expected and we see a pure character we've never seen before.Streisand also acts with her eyes, so pairing her with Rogen (the two are executive producers) is sheer brilliance but more so we didn't expect it. Her performance here is Oscar worthy, as has been much of her work, though her last Oscar for acting was "Funny Girl" in the 60's, even after Billy Crystal's very obvious slam to the Academy when "The Prince of Tides" was nominated for seven Oscars except Streisand as best director. (In a fantastic musical opening to the tune of Jule Styne's "Don't Rain On My Parade " he sang:"Did this film direct itself?"All four major awards went to "Silence of The Lambs" that year but in 1991 it became clear, by failing to nominate her at all as director, producer and actor, that the Academy was not going to nominate Streisand.Since then there was no other definative evidence but with "The Guilt Trip" it's clear that to overlook her performance was intentional. That's how good she is. Streisand plays Joyce, Rogen's mother, and she is comfortable within the parameters of her simple life but this cross country trip pulls her out of her comfort zones and she becomes very vulnerable yet stronger.In their rental car she has brought Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" book on CD, a brilliant novel about a hermaphrodite who struggles to become whole. The choice of this award winning novel is apt and not at all an accident. Both mother and son have duplicitously, though innocently, arranged for the other to reunite with their first love and it is the power of these meetings, the truths that unfold and how brilliantly these two actors pull it off that makes this film remarkable.As the trip unfolds so does their relationship and we find bits of ourselves in them as a parent; as a child. The film is about love but more so about unity. There are some wonderful moments of hilarity but the beautiful honest moments are what makes this film a delightful surprise. We're not watching Streisand and Rogen, we're with Andy and Joyce Brewster.And we're with them all the way. This is an excellent film that's about something.

What is not to love - a well-written movie starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen! The script was so well done and really showed the depth of each of these characters brought to charming realization by the lead actors. Each character has their own struggles - just like us, imagine that?!... Yet, we get a nationwide car trip adventure to bring what is hurting into the open and to heal by the final scene. This movie was not as funny as we had expected, but was made up for in the charming, heartfelt moments between mother and son and the final scenes in San Francisco just made this movie something truly special. Recommend a watch!

I wasn't sure how I would take this movie but I loved it. I could not believe the similarities of my oldest son who also is named Andy. The character Andy even wore the same shirt and has the exact same "dry humor" as my oldest son who is an Attorney at the age of 24 with his JD ( so proud.) I loved how Barbara S. was so comfortable in her "ways" of being single and still calling herself mommy to her son. I admit, I do too. She eats her M&M's in bed and told Andy that she really didn't want to date because she wants to be able to eat her M&Ms in bed....there were so so many things in the movie that I had to laugh at because they were so "real" and sweet at the same time. I liked how at the end, when Andy actually took his moms advice on the product he was "touring" that it really worked and won over the company. We care so much as parents and we have made our children our lives. When we have to live without them because they have grown and left, we sometimes do not even know what to do with ourselves and feel a deep sadness...is this the "empty nest syndrome" many speak of? I have just experienced this and so the movie was perfect for me right now. It isn't perhaps for everyone, for for many of us we can appreciate it and even share it with our kids so they can see where we are coming from. I shared it with my Andy and he liked it. He laughed and gave me a hug at the end :) We are proud of each other and I learned in this movie that it is okay to take on a new life when our kids grow up and leave. It isn;t easy but we have to try and I see she did that at the very end. It inspired me a lot! Good movie. Enjoy :)

Barbra hasn't done a lot of acting over the last 15 years or so, but you couldn't tell it by "Guilt Trip"! Actually, painful as her long vacation was for us fans, it seems to have been great for Ms. Streisand. She is relaxed and better than ever! She is wonderful in this role! And critics- don't say she plays the role of a Jewish mother so well because she is a Jewish mother! Joyce Brewster and Andy live on opposite sides of the country and rarely see each other. Barbra and her son, Jason, live near each other and see each other on a regular basis. So we have two entirely different situations!When reading articles about the movie before and during filming, it seemed the movie was about Seth Rogen's character, that Barbra was in the co-starring role. I got a little irritated more than a few times, when interviewers questioned Seth about how he felt about starring opposite Barbra. Questions like, "Is she going to sing?" had obvious implications. However while watching the movie it becomes very obvious that this movie is Barbra's!When the movie finally premiered (after 3 or 4 postponements), I was not only thrilled to see Barbra on the big screen again, I was amazed at how great she looks and once again reminded of just how immensely talented she is! It's wonderful to have our Barbra back-I hope she won't 'ever go away again'!

Love love love this movie. My adult son and I watch it whenever he visits. I probably love it more than he does lol , but he makes it look like he enjoys it too.