The Guilt Trip

I’m always up for a Barbra Streisand movie, even if it doesn’t turn out to be very good, because I’ve never seen her be bad. That is, she has such a powerful screen presence that even in material that is less than first rate, I can’t keep my eyes off of her and she manages to make something out of it. And this isn’t a bad one. She is paired up with Seth Rogan, who mostly acts as her straight man when they take a cross-country trip as mother and son. There are the usual conflicts as she can’t stop herself from trying to run his life in small ways, but she is never horrible about it, and it is clear that they love each other very much. You won’t see anything new and startling here, but you may have a good time if you just relax and enjoy it. Much of the movie takes place in the small rental car they are driving, and it’s clear that the two of them improvised a lot of dialogue as they went along. Both of them are very good, very natural, at that.