MovieChat Forums > The Guilt Trip (2012) Discussion > Too misleading a movie - deserves the fl...

Too misleading a movie - deserves the flak

posted 12 years ago by testinator
2 replies | jump to latest

This was marketed as a comedy. It isn't a comedy. Pretty much nothing in it was funny. It was nothing more than a mother-son relationship drama set in a car. No, I'm not expecting a "bromedy" like Road Trip or a Harold & Kumar style wild ride, but I was expecting at least a decent amount of humour in the dialogue like in other Seth Rogen movies (e.g. Knocked Up, Observe & Report, etc), which we had none of because Seth's character was just utterly depressed throughout the movie.

I mean, look at the official trailer ffs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FMQLzOq1i4

The film didn't even live up to the title name - where was the "guilt" part of the "guilt trip"? There was no guilt at all in the movie, only regret. It should have been called "regret trip".

And regarding the "guilt", I get the impression that the mother was meant to have been more annoying than she actually was. Those who watch the Big Bang Theory will get this, but I was expecting this movie to have the equivalent of Howard Wallowitz's mother being thrown into a car with Seth Rogan. Instead all we had was a loving mother with a tiny amount of nagging about drinking water and past relationships - the mother wasn't anywhere near as entertaining as I had hoped. Hence, the son just came across as an utter douchebag because of his attitude to said loving mother (until he changed and mellowed out after getting punched in the face), which made the movie very awkward.

Overall, it's not a terrible movie in itself, but I do think the low rating is justified and reflects the misleading nature of the way this film was promoted and advertised.

[–] TheBeardedWonder 12 years ago

Meh, they can't make her a caricature & TOO over the top though can they. It becomes too easy to write at that point and people know that. Subtlety is much harder from a character development point of view. I mean she tried to follow him into his business meeting, how much more insane do you need her to be? She knows everything she says annoys him (she even points it out), but she doesn't shut the hell up. She asks if he think she's an idiot, right after he TELLS her how idiotic she's being about the nagging and water. She calls him self absorbed but never once considers how HER actions and words affect him and his meetings. She bosses him around (the car, the rooms, the meetings), then when he stands up for himself HE'S the bad guy. If you watch and listen closely, she relates everything possible back to herself. Even him going to UCLA wasn't about himself or the school's great chem department, but about how he needs to get away from HER. It's always about her since she has NOTHING else really going in her life. Like I said, what more were you expecting?

On a side note, what age range are you? Not trying to be a jerk by any means (as infamous as the age subject is to bring up on imdb!), but it seems the younger people side with Rogen while the older folks see Streisand as more correct. You're 'she's not so bad and ergo he's a douchebag' comment is why I ask.

In the end, as another thread pointed out, NONE of her flaws (from the sons POV) were even addressed beyond a casual mention, while ALL of his flaws (from her POV) were 'corrected' by the end. She's still a nag to him, but she learns to have fun for herself. So what? Good for her, bad for him? Great.

The whole 'older people are always right and their kids are always wrong' moral was weak...

"What? Do you wanna just sit around and be wrong?" - Liz Lemon

[–] Clothes-Off 12 years ago

I just watched it with somebody Babs' age, and he was very hard on the mother. I'm closer to Seth's age, and I thought she had reasons for what she was saying and feeling. So ya never know.

"Well, for once the rich white man is in control!" C. M. Burns