The Guilt Trip steers clear of edgy humor

Joyce Brewster (Barbra Streisand) is the kind of doting mother who can’t just let things be. And she’s really insecure. She thinks her son Andy (Seth Rogen) moved from their New Jersey home out to Cali just to get away from her. In fact, Andy moved to L.A. to study organic chemistry, a field he loved since he was a kid. As much as he might find his mother annoying, Andy has a heart and invites her to tag along as he traipses across the country in the attempt to sell a safe cleaning product he’s developed. That’s the premise of The Guilt Trip, Anne Fletcher’s (27 Dresses, The Proposal) innocuous film about a mother and child reunion. (Cue Paul Simon.)

Once they hit the road, Andy has second thoughts. They get stuck in a snowstorm outside of Nashville and wind up at a strip club where a dancer helps them fix their rental car. In Texas, they eat at a steakhouse where Joyce chows down a huge meal as part of some eating contest. And they eventually make it to Vegas where mom hits the slots and takes advantage of the free drinks. It’s actually all in good, clean fun and probably a little too saccharine given the personality differences between the two. But as they venture further west, they grow closer and you get the feeling that if they can get through this, they can get through anything.

The film’s feel-good sentiment makes it come off as a nice family-friendly flick rather than the kind of edgy Judd Apatow projects for which Rogen is known. Even when Joyce starts prodding Andy about his sex life, she never pushes things too far or ventures into uncomfortable territory.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Not every comedy needs to push the R-rating. But as a result, the film isn’t really that funny. Rogen and Streisand are good together but they don’t get to joke around enough. It’s almost as if Fletcher took out the best parts, a hunch that’s confirmed if you stick around for the credits and see the laugh-worthy outtakes that didn’t make the final cut.