Jeff, Who Lives at Home

★★★★

(2012)

The Duplass' Brothers are carving a name out for themselves as the indie comedy kings, dividing audiences and firing out at least one shambolic film a year, but this little gem is their greatest achievement yet. A sort of slacker comedy about a man named Jeff (Jason Segel), who lives at home, of course, under the watchful eye of his working mother (Susan Sarandon). Jeff's opening monologue and his life philosophy which is based heavily on the plot line of the M Night Shyamalan film Signs is a wonderfully odd basis for a characters drive, but it's certainly charming enough to work.

When Jeff's mum takes him away from the basement in which he lives, his bong (and his bad film collection) to run a simple hardware store errand, Jeff, Who Lives at Home becomes a superbly watchable and sweetly funny story of characters lost. He begins well, but soon rambles, driven by the fate heavy message in Shyamalan's film and a wrong number phone call earlier in the day, to follow the breadcrumbs in his life. The breadcrumbs or signs he must follow, Jeff believes, are in the form of the recipient of the intended phone call, a man with a simple name, a man called Kevin.

Sure, Jeff is 30 and still lives with his mum, but he's peachy compared to his materialistic paint salesman brother, Pat (Ed Helms) who holds his business meetings at Hooters and drives around in a newly bought Porsche which he can't afford. On top of that he is convinced that his patient wife  is having an affair and he needs Jeff's help to find out. Meanwhile a secret admirer at Jeff's Mothers work sends her on her own little journey via instant messenger and eventually their paths must cross in a strangely affective finale.

Ed Helms is fantastic here, taking the worry-wart persona which he has perfected to another level and his scenes with the baby-faced Segel are the films strongest. Sarandon is equally great as the tired mother, her constantly flattered performance when she is given a little thrill of her own for the first time in decades is a small comic wonder. Despite all of the haphazard coincidences and goings on during the day, we never really wander that far from Jeff though, who's optimism in his quest for "Kevin" is both surreal and frequently funny. The Duplass Brother's take it slightly easier on the darkness delivering a positive, strange and touching comedy.