If you’re a Freaks and Geeks fan, you may have wondered what became of Nick Andopolis following the series’ one-season run. What’s left for a stoner from the ‘burbs with no plans for his future? “What happens to a dream[er] deferred?” It’s very likely that he eventually became Jeff, Who Lives at Home.
This not-quite-black-comedy from the Duplass brothers follows Jeff (Jason Segel), a 30-year-old basement dweller in Baton Rouge who, due to a “difficult adolescent period,” hasn’t been able to move forward in life. He wakes and bakes and is equally inspired by Gandhi as he is by Mel Gibson in Signs, as he’s constantly looking for signs in his own life. His mother (Susan Sarandon) gives him an ultimatum: leave the house to buy some wood glue at Home Depot or move out.
Before he can accomplish this, however, he’s distracted by a phone call that he immediately interprets to be his destiny. Along the way, he just happens to run into his older brother Pat (Ed Helms), who is also searching for something — although, the man his wife is potentially cheating on him with is much more tangible than Jeff’s higher purpose — so the two spend the rest of the day figuring out what fate has in store.
While Jeff lives at home, Pat lives in fear of his wife’s infidelity and their mother Sharon searches for some sign that she’s actually living. Each component of their functionally dysfunctional family is dealing with its own miniature existential crisis and doesn’t quite know who they are or what they’re doing. Jeff, tall and tubby with the physique of a monstrous teddy bear, is something of an overgrown child: he can’t handle reality, keep a job or take care of himself.
However, the examples his mother and older brother Pat offer don’t paint an endearing picture of adulthood: they have jobs and families, but neither is satisfied with their life — at least Jeff is at peace. And what worth does the title of “adult” hold, anyway? They’re all basically children, as Pat can’t think long-term or make smart financial decisions and their mom exchanges juvenile paper airplane messages with a secret admirer at work.
The dialogue isn’t smart or developed — something that becomes more understandable once you know that the actors essentially improvised all of their scenes. Rather than seeming like lack of effort on the parts of Mark and Jay Duplass (a brother screenwriting/directing team that have won acclaim for independent films such as Baghead and The Puffy Chair), it adds to the film’s authenticity, as all the interpersonal interactions are about as genuine as acting can accomplish.
With the Paramount Pictures release of Jeff, the Duplasses are swiftly transcending the mumblecore movies through which they’ve found fame and moving on to better budgets, bigger actors and wider audiences. Even if understated flicks aren’t your thing, it’s worth watching to see the depth that Helms and Segel can accomplish outside of their respective comedic network television roles. While Helms has the earnest, insecure act down to a science, neither Andy from The Office nor Stu from The Hangover are quite the asshole that Pat projects — but there’s something underneath his awful goatee that is just as desperate for validation and tries equally hard to be a good person.
Meanwhile, Jeff also proves that Segel is capable of a lot more than just acting opposite a romantic interest. Make no mistake, his characters in The Muppets, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I Love You Man (bromantic interest, in this case) are lovable, but they revolve wholly around another person: this is his real first attempt at an individual leading man and it suits him.
The movie moves slowly — is trudge too harsh a word? — but through the lens of Jeff’s perpetual childlike wonder, the humdrum of everyday life feels like something greater. Jeff, Pat and Sharon’s lives all take decisively unexpected turns and viewers might be inspired to search for meaning in their own existences. Jeff's premise isn’t an original concept in film, but the execution is different enough to keep it interesting.