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Jeff Who Lives At Home Blu-ray Review

“Jeff Who Lives At Home” is a meandering mumblecore flick.

“Jeff Who Lives At Home” is less about plot and more about characters. The film is essentially an interconnected story about two brothers (Jeff and Pat) and their mother (Sharon). Jeff is a philosophical, jobless, homebody stoner who is trying to discover his destiny. Pat is a selfish husband whose wife may or may not be cheating on him. Sharon is an unhappy mother who has a secret admirer at her place of employment. How do all these stories tie together? What will happen to this family? That would be telling.

For a film that is billed as a comedy, there’s not much to laugh at in ‘Jeff.’ The film plays more like a drama as it tackles some rather heavy duty themes about destiny, the past, family, and happiness. Unfortunately, the themes don’t exactly mesh well with the “story” in this meandering and largely uneventful film written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass (who are responsible for the likeable “Cyrus” and “Baghead”). The real problem is that the movie doesn’t add up to much. It’s essentially a contrived piece about how “everything happens for a reason.” It’s pretty straight forward which leaves you shrugging your shoulders by the time the credits roll.

On the plus side, the performances are largely convincing here. This is arguably Jason Segal’s most complex role to date and he certainly carries the film to the best of his ability. Susan Sarandon also turns in a nice performance as a frustrated mother. Ed Helms, Judy Greer, and yes, even Rae Dawn Chong also give satisfactory performances.

Summary: One can’t help but feel like there should have been more to “Jeff Who Lives At Home.” Possibly worth a rent.

Video/Audio:

Despite the irritating cinematography (see the excessive zooms and extreme close-ups), the film still looks clean and sharp in 1080p.

While not a very audio centric movie, the 5.1 DTS-HD does a fine job of handling the dialogue, the tiny bit of action, and the sporadic music.

This is a bare bones release. The only extra feature is the inclusion of an Ultraviolet Copy.

June 26, 2012 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Ed Helms, Jason Segal, Jeff Who Lives At Home Blu-ray Review, Susan Sarandon