The charm of critically acclaimed film "This is where I Leave You"

This would be the film of the year, wherein I saw a little of myself. I love the way this was executed to the big screen. I laughed, cried and think a lot after watching this film, and would visit my parents this week to check on them.

Warner Bros. Pictures' endearing family dramedy “This is Where I Leave You” arrives exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide on Dec. 17 with a flurry of rave reviews from highly regarded American critics.

The  story revolves around the Altman's family when their father passed away, four grown siblings bonded together with their mother four grown siblings bruised and banged up by their respective lives are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide—driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.


Variety's resident film reviewer Scott Foundas writes, “`This Is Where I Leave You' is a sprawling ensemble dramedy that starts out like a full-tilt sitcom and gradually migrates to a place of genuine feeling. Repping a concerted effort by `Night at the Museum' and `Cheaper by the Dozen' helmer Shawn Levy to spread his wings beyond the gilded cage of family-friendly tentpoles, this alternately manic and mawkish adaptation of Jonathan Tropper’s 2009 novel aims for `Terms of Endearment' territory and ends up somewhere closer to a Semitic `August: Osage County.' But a tremendous ensemble cast gives the pic a significant boost, especially when they’re allowed to act rather than merely act out.

Continues Foundas, “[A]round the halfway mark, the movie quits trying quite so hard to make you love it and takes on a more nuanced, lifelike countenance. After setting up so many pat, obvious conflicts, Tropper’s screenplay then works through them in a somewhat less obvious fashion. The characters actually end up having to make some hard choices.”

Meanwhile, Betsy Sharkey of Los Angeles Times recommends that she “[C]an't think of a family I'd rather sit shiva with than the Altmans of `This Is Where I Leave You.' They bury their father with the right mix of tears and unearthed resentments, and they take the blows life hands them seriously enough but in stride. As if they are nothing special..This is exactly the charm of Jonathan Tropper's novel on which the comedy/drama is based.”

For his part, Newday's Rafer Guzman applauds, “Shawn Levy's new film, `This Is Where I Leave You,' checks off so many Hollywood boxes that you might suspect it of blatant pandering. Star-studded cast? Check. Based on best-selling novel? Check. Drama, romance, humor and pathos, all set against that instantly identifiable backdrop, the American suburb? Check, check and check.
“Despite or perhaps because of all that, `This Is Where I Leave You' works marvelously. Written by Jonathan Tropper from his novel about a dysfunctional Jewish family sitting shiva for its patriarch, [the film] is the year's first real crowd pleaser, a comedy-drama that presses all the right buttons but does so with intelligence and skill. It's not too heavy, not too light -- just right for a grown-up night at the movies.

Finally, Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter praises, “You laugh in spite of yourself in `This Is Where I Leave You,' a potty-mouthed comedy with enough exasperation, aggravations, long-standing grievances and get-me-outta-here moments of family stress to strike a chord with anyone who’s ever had to endure large clan gatherings that might have lasted a bit too long. The fact that many people will find something or someone to identify with here, even if they don’t have a mother with big new boobs prone to talking about sex most of the time the way Jane Fonda does here, should make Shawn’s Levy’s first R-rated comedy a much-needed hit for Warner Bros. Levy’s orchestration of the mayhem is silky smooth.”

The dramatic comedy “This is Where I Leave You” is directed by Shawn Levy, and based on the hilarious and poignant best-selling novel by Jonathan Tropper. It features a starring ensemble cast, including Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and Jane Fonda.


To be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide starting Dec. 17, “This is Where I Leave You” is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.

WB Remains The Only Studio In History To Surpass $1 Billion Domestically For 14 Consecutive Years

WARNER BROS. PICTURES CROSSES BILLION-DOLLAR MARK AT U.S. BOX OFFICE

 Warner Bros. Pictures became the only film studio in history to earn more than $1 billion at the domestic box office for 14 years in a row. In fact, the division has crossed the billion-dollar mark for 15 of the past 16 years. The announcement was made recently by Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. Pictures’ President of Domestic Distribution.

The studio passed the billion-dollar threshold thanks to a huge first quarter, featuring the box office success of New Line Cinema’s and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’ “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the second in Peter Jackson’s Trilogy, which opened in late 2013 but which enjoyed substantial returns in the first quarter of this year.

2014 continued to build with Warner Bros. Pictures’, Village Roadshow Pictures’ and LEGO System A/S’s blockbuster animated feature “The LEGO Movie”—which was the #1 movie for the first half of 2014—and “300: Rise of an Empire,” the heavy-hitting follow up to Zack Snyder’s groundbreaking “300,” from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Summer started with a bang thanks to the monster hit “Godzilla,” from Warner Bros. and Legendary, IMAX’s largest opening this year, followed by Doug Liman’s action thriller from Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow, “Edge of Tomorrow,” starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, and one-of-a-kind comedy from Melissa McCarthy as New Line’s “Tammy.”

In making the announcement, Fellman said, “This is a proud day for our studio. To cross such an extraordinary milestone once again is a direct reflection of the high standards and incredible efforts of the dedicated and creative individuals at work here, both on and off the screen. We still have an exciting roster of films yet to open this calendar year and, together with the talented teams bringing them to the theater, we look forward to continued success.”

Still to come in 2014 from Warner Bros. Pictures are: New Line’s and MGM’s “If I Stay”; Alcon Entertainment’s “Dolphin Tale 2”; the dramatic comedy ensemble of “This Is Where I Leave You,” starring Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and Jane Fonda; “Annabelle,” another chapter in New Line’s highly successful “The Conjuring”; David Dobkin’s “The Judge,” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall in tour-de-force performances, from Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow; New Line’s sequel to the hit comedy “Horrible Bosses,” “Horrible Bosses 2,” reuniting the stars from the original, including Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day; “Inherent Vice,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “surf noir” adaptation of author Thomas Pynchon’s cult favorite novel; and from New Line and MGM, the much-anticipated finale to Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” Trilogy, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”