''Jeff, Who Lives at Home'' is a 2011 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film written and directed by Jay and

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996, for which they wrote and directed ''The ...

, starring Jason Segel and

Ed Helms Edward Parker Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor, musician and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's '' The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sit ...

, and co-starring

Judy Greer Judith Therese Evans (born July 20, 1975), known professionally as Judy Greer, is an American actress. She is primarily known as a character actress who has appeared in Judy Greer filmography, a wide variety of films. She rose to prominence for ...

and Susan Sarandon. The film premiered on September 14, 2011, at the

2011 Toronto International Film Festival The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, between September 8 and September 18, 2011. Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening fil ...

and then saw a limited release in the United States and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

on March 16, 2012, after having been pushed back from the original date of March 2. The film received praise for its humor, but grossed only $4.7 million worldwide against a $7.5 million budget.

Plot

Jeff is a 30-year-old unemployed stoner living in his mother Sharon's basement in

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. He looks for his destiny in seemingly random occurrences. Finding inspiration in the film '' Signs'' reinforces his belief in this. One day, he answers the telephone; the wrong number is for somebody called "Kevin", and Jeff contemplates its meaning, deciding it is a sign. Getting a call from his irritated mother asking him to buy

wood glue Wood glue is an adhesive used to tightly bond pieces of wood together. Many substances have been used as glues. Traditionally animal proteins like casein from milk or collagen from animal hides and bones were boiled down to make early glues. They w ...

to fix a door shutter or find a new place to live, Jeff boards a bus. There, he sees a kid wearing a sports jersey bearing the name Kevin. He follows him to a

basketball court In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor ...

, where he joins a pick-up game, and they bond. Jeff agrees to smoke weed with Kevin, but is tricked, beaten, and mugged. Coming upon a

Hooters Hooters is the registered trademark used by two American restaurant chains: Hooters, Inc., based in Clearwater, Florida, and Hooters of America, Inc. based in Atlanta, Georgia, and owned by the private investment firm Nord Bay Capital (with Tr ...

restaurant, Jeff comes across his older brother Pat, a successful

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

struggling with his marriage. Pat's wife Linda is spotted across the street with another man. Jeff and Pat spend several hours following them, first to a restaurant and later to a hotel, with Pat's new

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

being ticketed, crashed, and eventually towed away at various points on the journey. The brothers also visit their father's gravesite and fight over their conflicting life philosophies. Seeing a truck reading "Kevin Kandy", Jeff runs off to hitch a ride, ending up at the same hotel where Pat has found Linda in a room with another man. Jeff offers to break down the door. The man is her co-worker, Steve. Linda quickly ushers Steve out and then confronts Pat about his role in their problems. Frustrated, she leaves, saying she is going to live with her mother. Jeff and Pat reconcile; Jeff explains how he is struggling to find his destiny, while Pat admits he wants him and Linda to fall in love again. Jeff encourages him to tell her, and they hail a taxi to pursue her. Interspersed within the main story is the story of Sharon, who is at work, frustrated with her unfulfilled life, and dissatisfied with her sons. The doldrum is interrupted when a paper airplane with a drawing of a flower lands in her cubicle, followed by an anonymous co-worker claiming in an instant message to be a secret admirer. Sharon spends the day trying to deduce their identity. Confiding her frustrations to colleague and friend Carol, she reveals that she has not dated since her husband's death. Carol encourages her to warm up to the attention she is receiving. Sharon is surprised and confused when the admirer turns out to be Carol herself, and though neither believe themselves to be attracted to their own gender, Carol appeals to Sharon's desire to become close with someone who truly understands her. At that moment, a fire alarm goes off and ceiling sprinklers activate; this is an enlightening moment for Sharon who sets off with Carol on an impulsive trip to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. Jeff, Pat, Linda, Sharon, and Carol converge on a bridge, getting stuck in standstill traffic. Pat exits the taxi and runs through the cars to tell Linda how he feels, passing Carol's car; Sharon sees and runs after him, followed by Carol. As Jeff muses to the cab driver about how seeking his destiny is not very exciting, he sees a helicopter flying overhead. He jumps out of the taxi and also runs through the cars, passing Pat, who was sharing his feelings with Linda when Sharon and Carol arrive. Jeff continues running, seeing the cause of the traffic is an accident in which a car plummeted over the side of the bridge. He dives into the water, rescuing two children and their father; when Jeff then fails to resurface Pat dives in and rescues him. The group reconciles after the ordeal: Sharon celebrates her birthday and Pat and Linda appearing to fare better in their marriage. Jeff sees a news report about his heroics, and learns that the father of the kids he rescued was also named Kevin; now with a sense of purpose, he grabs some wood glue and fixes the shutter.

Cast

* Jason Segel as Jeff Thompkins *

as Pat Thompkins * Susan Sarandon as Sharon Thompkins *

as Linda Thompkins *

Rae Dawn Chong Rae Dawn Chong (born February 28, 1961) is a Canadian-American actress. She made her big screen debut appearing in the 1978 musical drama film ''Stony Island (film), Stony Island'', and in 1981 starred in the fantasy film ''Quest for Fire (film), ...

as Carol * Steve Zissis as Steve * Evan Ross as Kevin

Release

The film grossed $840,000 in its opening weekend. ''Jeff, Who Lives at Home'' grossed $4,269,426 in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and $435,331 elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $4,704,757.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 77% based on 141 reviews, with an average rating of 6.77/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sweet, funny, and flawed, ''Jeff, Who Lives at Home'' finds the Duplass brothers moving into the mainstream with their signature quirky charm intact". On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a normalized score of 60 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' gave the film three stars out of four and described it as:

Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born June 27, 1943) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film i ...

of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' also gave the film three stars out of four and described it as "funny, touching, and vital", praising the Duplass brothers by saying that "their films hit you where you live."

Home media

''Jeff, Who Lives at Home'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on June 19, 2012.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeff, Who Lives at Home 2011 films 2011 comedy-drama films 2011 independent films 2011 LGBTQ-related films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American comedy-drama films American LGBTQ-related films Culture of Baton Rouge, Louisiana English-language comedy-drama films English-language independent films Films about brothers Films about mother–son relationships Films produced by Jason Reitman Films produced by Lianne Halfon Films scored by Michael Andrews Films set in Louisiana Films shot in Louisiana Indian Paintbrush (company) films LGBTQ-related comedy-drama films Paramount Vantage films