Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, and Jane Fonda walk into a movie.  Wait wait, there’s more; Connie Britton, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll are there too.  Punch line?  Tons of ’em.  There’s also plenty to squirm over, as the cast has no problems showing you their characters good and bad sides.  I found myself disgusted and hilariously amused by this family; it’s like the family down the street that are definitely hipper than thou, but that you’d never switch places with in a million years.  In the end This is Where I Leave You left me with more laughs than pauses.  That’s thanks to the brilliant work of the cast, and director Shawn Levy’s easygoing but well-timed pacing.

This is Where I Leave You deals with the pain and strangeness of losing your dad, and how families that are prickly can have surprising tenderness for each other.  At least when they’re not titty-twisting the younger kids.  I mean c’mon, sweet is all well and good but let’s be real.  Middle kid Judd Altman has just found out his wife has been cheating on him with his boss.  While in his funk of self-pity, sister Wendy calls to tell him that their father has died.  As they come together with their brothers Paul and Phillip, momma Hillary tells them their father’s final wish; for them and their families to all sit Shiva for a week in the family home.  Wendy’s picture-perfect marriage is seen to have problems that aren’t helped by her reunion with former boyfriend Horry (Timothy Olyphant).  Paul and wife Alice are desperately trying to conceive, and the fact that Alice and Judd used to date isn’t helping things.  Phillip, the baby of the family and lifelong screwup, brings home fiancee Tracy (Connie Britton), who used to be his therapist but can’t seem to help him rein in his destructive behavior.  And Judd gets a visit from his ex telling him that she’s pregnant…and it’s his. Got all that?  Good.  Surprisingly, all that plays out easily, and TIWILY has an ensemble feel that’s in no small part due to the chemistry between the leads.

Tropper does double-duty as screenwriter and novelist (this film is based on Tropper’s book of the same name), and so the so-wrong-it’s-hilarious vibe translates well from page to screen.  And a cast this talented only adds to the dysfunctional hijinks, playing things just straight enough to feel authentic.  Byrne, as Penny, a woman who when she was younger had a huge crush on Judd, is a bit of an oddball, but not overly so.  Her character could have been  an all-out goof, but Byrne turns her honesty and quirks into a character I’d love to run into at a coffee shop.  Same goes for Olyphant’s Horry, a man who survived an accident with traumatic brain injury.  He’s aware that his life is different, and he’s just savvy enough to understand he’s not all there anymore.  And that’s it; no violins, no over-emphasised tics.  Just a scar that speaks louder than any overabundance of “specialness” ever could.  Olyphant’s light touch — and Levy’s judicious use of the character — keep Horry’s humanity intact.

Director Shawn Levy does great comedy-with-real-life-bits-thrown-in.  See: Night at the Museum, Date Night.  And yeah, even Real Steel managed to pull off fantasy and family heartstring tugging. He also knows when to let his actors off the leash and let them go off script if the scene is better for it.  (See: Fey and Bateman.)  Who knew a film about sitting shiva could be so funny?  Heartwarming, sure.  A story about how a father’s death brings everyone together is bound to drum up some bittersweet tears, but the dark, oftentimes inappropriate humor in TIWILY is a happy surprise.  No twists.  No “all the jokes are in the trailer”.  Just a film you kind of feel bad about laughing along with, for fear your own mom will bop you upside the head for being insensitive.

The soundtrack is perfect for a going back to your roots kinda story, with golden oldies from INXS, Cyndi Lauper and The Psychedelic Furs hang with newbies Sait Raymond, Coldplay and Alexi Murdoch (who I could have sworn was Eddie Vedder there for a moment.)

The best part?  SPOILERS, kinda: not everything gets wrapped up in a bow at the end.  Hey, just like real life!  The Altmans are a complicated, funky, funny and not completely grounded family that has their share of screwups and skeletons.  Just like real life.  But here, for a moment, This is Where I Leave You shows that real love can be found in-between all the mess.