The manchild movie has proved so popular in recent years, it isn’t surprising that it’s fair game not merely for the Judd Apatows and Adam Sandlers of the world, but also for low-budget, indie experimentalists.
Thus we have Jay and Mark Duplass, the brothers whose frowzy efforts include the partly improvised “Cyrus” and “The Puffy Chair,” turning in “Jeff, Who Lives at Home.” The title itself could describe a dozen such efforts in recent years, albeit with characters not named Jeff.
He’s a 30-year-old slugabout played by “Muppets” star Jason Segel. Jeff is first introduced to us as a daydreamer, speculating about the interconnectedness of life as expressed in the movie “Signs,” after which he reaches for another bong hit.
Jeff does, in fact, live at home, in the basement. His mother (Susan Sarandon) works an office job and she asks Jeff if he could possibly go to the hardware store and pick up some glue to fix a broken slat.
Sounds like a regular day. But this is no regular day. Or maybe it is, but when Jeff leaves home, he goes with a mysterious sense of destiny: He believes he’s being given significant messages somehow, which must be followed on faith and that these messages have something to do with a man named Kevin.
The movie charts the course of this day to an unlikely but sweetly rendered conclusion, which is generally pleasant to watch, if somehow artificial at its core. Or maybe I’m wrong, and everything really does mean something.
Segel’s schlubby guy is balanced by his less admirable brother Pat, played by Ed Helms (of the “Hangover” movies). Pat’s bungled marriage leads him to suspect that his wife (Judy Greer, late of “The Descendants”) might be considering an affair, a suspicion that carries the movie through its comedic midsection.
Even if you find this to be reasonably amusing, it’s possible to be nagged by the feeling that the film isn’t really plowing new ground. The Louisiana locations don’t feel as fresh as they could (although maybe their ordinariness is the point), and Michael Andrews’ moody music sounds a little familiar, too.
It’s not until the climactic sequence of this film, which focuses the story in a very specific way, that “Jeff” shakes off some of the vagueness that also surrounds its laid-back hero.
Here the Duplass brothers reach for something kinda big and kinda cool, and the degree to which they bring it off might depend on how much stock you place in the everything-has-a-meaning philosophy embraced by Jeff. One thing for sure: You will not hear the name Kevin in the same way again.
“Jeff, Who Lives at Home” (2½ stars)
A manchild movie about 30-year-old slugabout Jeff (Jason Segel), living in Mom’s basement, and the day that confirms his belief that everything is connected in some meaningful way. Ed Helms and Susan Sarandon co-star in this film by the indie Duplass brothers, which shakes off its general vagueness for a kinda-cool climax.
Rated: R for language, subject matter.
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Guild 45th, Meridian, Thornton Place.
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