Jeff, Who Lives At Home

Just came back from Jeff, Who Lives At Home, which is a movie done in the independent mode. It's not really indie, of course—Paramount! But Susan Sarandon is in it, so its true provenance is obvious. And so is Jason Segal, who valiantly plays against type as a nice, if directionless, guy with a childlike demeanor.

I'm just kiddin'—for the first act, Segal plays Jeff as a paranoid schizophrenic. Obsessed with the awful film Signs, Jeff interprets a wrong number as a search for a man named "Kevin." Shall I declare a spoiler alert right now? He finds Kevin. It all works out and it's magical. But for the first half hour it's a toss-up—had the film ended with Jeff in a mental hospital it would have made perfect sense.

Jeff has a brother named Pat, who is scarcely any more together than Jeff. Pat has a job, and a wife, but their marriage is strained and sexless and Pat's great idea is to buy a Porsche and hang out in Hooters. He's not nearly as slick as he thinks he is. As it turns out, you can't bribe anyone in Baton Rouge with crumpled bills from your pocket. Meanwhile, mom is in the office, trading IMs with a mysterious "secret admirer." It's her birthday!

As the narrative has to move along, Jeff and Pat zip around chasing after Pat's wife Linda (Judy Greer, the second banana in every movie!) who may or may not be having an affair, but who certainly wants a divorce. The Porsche bites it. Rae Dawn Chong is in the movie! She does things. Other possible Kevins come and go.

Then, finally, all the characters are together and stuck in traffic on a bridge. You know, JUST THE SAME WAY THEY'RE STUCK IN THEIR LIVES. And Jeff springs into action and saves three lives. A man and his two daughters. Pat tells Linda that he wants to be in love again. Mom and Rae Dawn Chong aren't quite lesbians, though they do kiss. And the man Jeff saves...

Go on.

Yes, you know it.

His name is Kevin.

Also, Pat then saves Jeff.

You know, it's perfectly fine for Jeff to be obsessed with the film Signs, and to seek out connections and portents in all sorts of random events, but when the movie itself does it, things go south quickly. It also would have been great if Pat saves Jeff but is still kind of a jerk and a pill. All men contain multitudes, after all. But the universe has pushed everyone around through every possible means—dreams, street crime, traffic regulations, vending machine routes, the cut of a woman's blazer, endangered children you name it!—so to get us the happy ending and the neatly tied bow. Characterization goes to hell and transformations are both perfect instantaneous. Every first-act firearm is fired in the third with expert precision. So what if the story stops making any sense, and all the conflicts melt into air. Kevin! Everything is connected! Bleh.

There are lots of charming little bits, and funny lines, and Segal plays his usual giant-baby physical comedy well enough. Worth watching, but as la_nausicaa said, "Don't think about it. Not even for a moment!"