Every actor has a project that can be identified as their “breakout” moment. Bruce Willis went from a virtually unknown TV actor to a bona fide superstar overnight with Die Hard. Boogie Nights transformed Mark Wahlberg, a troubled youth rapper, into a convincing and capable leading man. And Margot Robbie went from zero to hero after her dazzling performance in The Wolf of Wall Street. In most cases, actors wouldn’t trade their breakout movie role for the world, but it is often unfortunate that their earlier, and sometimes more impressive, roles go undiscovered.
This was undoubtedly the case for Adam Driver, whose breakout role is generally considered his performance as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While Driver is, without question, impressive and memorable as Kylo Ren, especially in this first film, he had plenty of roles before this that are equally deserving of praise. TV fans may point to Lena Dunham’s Girls, where Driver had a hilarious recurring role. The Coen brothers’ disciples rightfully direct their attention towards the film that is arguably their magnum opus, Inside Llewyn Davis, where Driver has a captivating couple of minutes of screen time. The most underrated early Driver film, however, is undoubtedly This is Where I Leave You, a star-studded ensemble dramedy that never quite got the reception it deserved.
This is Where I Leave You is Haunting and Hilarious
This is Where I Leave You is an oft-forgotten film from an admittedly rough period for the Hollywood comedy. 2014 did have some memorable gems to offer, like The Interview, 22 Jump Street, and the massively underrated spoof comedy, They Came Together, but for the most part, the genre was in free fall. It was this period where sequels began to take hold, producers began taking bold fliers on previously non-leading actors, and studios pivoted their focus to films that can have a worldwide appeal (which comedies generally don’t). This pivot saw some successes, as previously mentioned, but the major result was critical failures and catastrophic flops, and This is Where I Leave You, unfortunately, can be considered both.
Certain films from this era failed for obvious reasons. The Ridiculous Six, and many other Netflix original Sandler films, weren’t gunning for critical adoration, while films like Zoolander 2 simply missed the boat and failed to capture what made the original so special. This is Where I Leave You doesn’t have an obvious reason for flopping. The film is led by comedy genre staples, has a talented and highly commercial director at the helm, and even follows a fairly iron-clad story arc. This is Where I Leave You is a modern movie mystery, and only fans at home can help it achieve the critical reappraisal that it deserves.
This Is Where I Leave You is based on a Jonathan Tropper novel, and follows in the footsteps of fellow 2014 release, Gone Girl, by having the author also slot in and write the screenplay. As expected, Tropper does justice to his own story and delivers a solid story all about family, grief, star-crossed lovers, and regret.
The film’s plot begins shortly after the father of the Altman siblings, Judd, Wendy, Paul, and Phillip, passes away. According to their Jewish faith, the four “kids” return home to honor their father’s wish and sit shiva, forcing them to spend a long week together under one roof. The week goes just about as expected. Judd recovers from his wife’s infidelity and reconnects with an old flame. Wendy unsuccessfully fights for her unhappy marriage. Paul and his wife grapple with infertility. And, finally, Phillip stays in his stage of arrested development and stays immature. Over the course of the week, the siblings are forced to confront what they want from life in the wake of their father’s death. They are brought to the realization that nothing is possible without acceptance and that before they move forward, they have to heal.
While the emotions run high in both versions of Tropper’s This is Where I Leave You, the film also remains one of the funniest films of its decade. Over the course of the week of sitting shiva, tensions arise, secrets surface, and past wounds reopen, and all of it happens in an absurdist and chaotic way.
This is Where I Leave You Has a Star-Studded Cast (But Adam Driver Steals the Show)
This is Where I Leave You achieves a seemingly impossible task by combining tons of different comedic styles into its 103-minute run time. Much of the credit for this goes to Jonathan Tropper for writing the brilliant screenplay, of course, but the film’s star-studded cast cannot be ignored. The crew for the film assembled a cast from all different corners of the entertainment industry, and, while it looks strange on paper, it turned out better than anyone could have imagined. Saturday Night Live alums, sitcom stars, and raunchy comedy icons clash with Academy Award recipients, dramatic actors, and theater geeks to create one of the strangest, most perfect casts ever assembled.
As expected, leading the pack in the film are the four Altman siblings, Judd, Wendy, Paul, and Phillip. The leading man of the film is Judd, played by Jason Bateman. Bateman is an actor who, at the time, was best known as a sitcom star for Arrested Development, but had slowly and steadily been cementing himself as one of the preeminent stars of the 2010s Hollywood comedy (Horrible Bosses, Identity Thief, The Switch). The film’s secondary character is most likely Wendy, played by Tina Fey. Fey is perhaps the most expected name in the cast, as she was at the time very well known for her seamless ability to blend drama and comedy in her post-SNL efforts (Date Night, 30 Rock, Mean Girls). After Wendy comes Paul, played by Corey Stoll. Stoll is an unsung hero in Hollywood who always turns in an impressive performance (Ant-Man, West Side Story, First Man), but has very rarely gone full comedy, until this film.
Stoll, Fey, and Bateman’s characters are completely overshadowed, however, by the sporadic and satisfying scenes where Adam Driver’s Phillip rears his head. Adam Driver, in this film, will have audiences wondering why he’s a dramatic actor in the first place. This is Where I Leave You elegantly combines the unrestrained insanity of his Saturday Night Live hosting appearances with the awkward neuroticism that fills the frame in projects like Paterson, Inside Llewyn Davis, and Girls. His character’s resistance to growing up in a “mature” environment, like Shiva, is both painfully awkward and deeply relatable. With this performance, he paints a portrait. A portrait of a character with crippling insecurity and a need for attention, but also one that refuses to show it or put it into words.
The rest of the film’s cast is nothing to scoff at either. Jane Fonda plays Hillary, the plastic-surgeried matriarch of the Altman clan. Rose Byrne plays Penny, Judd’s years-long love interest. Kathyrn Hahn plays a familiarly maniacal role as Annie Altman, Paul’s wife. Timothy Olyphant appears as the admittedly half-baked character, Horry, Wendy’s ex-boyfriend with a brain injury. And Connie Britton, Ben Schwartz, and Dax Sheppard round out the cast as friends and family with a flair for making things uncomfortable.
This is Where I Leave You Collapsed in Theaters
Despite a brilliant mix of comedic styles and dramatic tones, This is Where I Leave You left audiences feeling cold, and hardly managed to find an audience outside a few cult defenders. The film immediately became controversial, with a pair of middling ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and even worse luck on other aggregate sites. As of September 2025, This is Where I Leave You has a rating of 44% from critics and a slightly improved 60% from audiences.
These unexciting scores translated to unexciting, but not terrible, box office results for Shawn Levy, Tropper, and company. Given the film’s star-studded cast, a big box office haul was expected. The film managed to rake in $41.3 million against a budget of $19.8 million, but was generally viewed as a disappointment considering the relatively weak competition it opened up against (The Maze Runner, A Walk Among the Tombstones).
As time goes on and chaotic family reunion films continue to accrue critical adoration (Knives Out being a prime example), This Is Where I Leave You seems poised for a reassessment. Even so, the film deserved more recognition when it first hit theaters, and unfortunately, it will never get the full scale of love it deserves. Fans of comedy, Adam Driver, or chaotic ensemble films would all be remiss if they didn’t give this unsung 2010s gem a fair shot.
Release Date
September 10, 2014
Runtime
103 Minutes
Writers
Jonathan Tropper