What I liked: I really enjoyed how all the characters interacted with each other. They had a kind of easy familiarity that seemed pretty realistic, especially Jason Bateman and Tina Fey. There were some parts that had me laughing in spite of myself, especially a running gag where everyone keeps calling a rabbi by his childhood nickname, much to his chagrin (his nickname is "Boner," it's pretty funny).
What I didn't like: It's probably just the presence of Jason Bateman here, but I kept thinking that maybe they should have just gotten the rest of the cast of Arrested Development to handle many of these roles. Especially Jane Fonda, who seems like she's doing a version of Jessica Walter's boozy over-sharing shtick.
I'm undecided on this feeling of back story that the movie had. If I found out that This Is Where I Leave you was a sequel or cast reunion to some other movie or TV show that was popular 10 years ago I wouldn't be surprised. There are so many things here that are mentioned and undeveloped or just glossed over. Like how apparently at one point the mother of the family wrote a famous Ordinary People type book about her kids going through adolescence which was really weird and embarrassing for them, but after that's mentioned it's just kind of dropped. In the end a lot of things are really resolved and things still seem up in the air. If you wanted to be charitable you might think that this is intentional, because after all in real life we rarely have smooth beginnings or endings, but a more realistic view may be that the script is a bit under cooked, and could have been tightened up a bit more. Either way, I found this movie to be fun and enjoyable, and if you like movies about family stuff, it can be worth your time.
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