Jeff Who Lives at Home 2011

Jeff at 30 lives in his moms basement unemployed looking for signs about what to do with his life. He answers a wrongnumber call for Kevin. Later on a bus he sees someone wearing a jersey with Kevin on the back. Jeff follows him. Meanwhile Jeffs brother Pat a tonedeaf salesman upsets his wife by buying a Porsche they cannot afford Pat runs into Jeff soon after and they see Pats wife with another man. At her job Jeff and Pats mom receives emails from a secret admirer she tries to figure out who it is. Misunderstandings errors and confrontations abound. A backup on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway brings things to a head.

Review

Jeff Who Lives at Home starts out by referencing a film from 10 years ago. The main character Jeff speaks about his love for the movie Signs. That movie was all about signs being sent to us and that we must use those signs as guides for living our lives. This becomes Jeff's mantra for how he lives his life. These signs haven't been getting him anywhere as of yet though. He's a grownup slacker who still lives at home with his mother as the title of the film says. It's this bohemian freespirited attitude that has led him to where he is. He seems at peace with things yet something is missing from his life. His brother Pat is the opposite. He's married has a job and even just bought a new Porsche he doesn't believe in slacking off like Jeff. That doesn't mean everything is going well for him though. He really didn't have the money to comfortably afford the Porsche and you can tell that his wife isn't happy about it. But Pat lives in the moment. While showing off the Porsche to Jeff they see his wife with another man and start to suspect she's having an affair. Even though these two brothers don't generally get along and seem to despise each other a little Jeff agrees to help Pat out and find out what's going on. Along the way they begin to learn about each other and their different ways of approaching things. Pat always thought he had his life together and looked down on Jeff. Now's he realizing that maybe Jeff had a better way of looking at things. Jason Segel and Ed Helms play the 2 brothers and make the best of their roles. There's also an interesting subplot about what's going on with their mother (Susan Sarandon) at her job. The movie is part of a recent genre of film called "mumblecore" which generally have low budgets and focus more on the dialogue sort of like a Quentin Tarantino film without the action. Luckily the dialogue here is very good and holds your interest throughout. At less than an hour and half (which is very rare nowadays) it doesn't meander at all. It focuses on how we spend our days and seems to have a message of living more carefree. But there are plenty of laughs throughout the film which make it very enjoyable.