Like another reviewer here, I'm also perplexed why people have given this such negative reviews. As a kid my parents took me with them to see "Funny Girl" and even at that young age I was impressed by Barbra Streisand; however, as her career progressed I became less enamored of her and found most of her performances to be mechanical and pretty narcissistic. When she directed herself, camera angles always seemed to be engineered to show only one side of her face, and she really didn't seem to be able to concentrate fully enough to be able to do any serious acting (as an example, her crying scene in "The Way We Were" always embarrassed me, it seemed so forced and artificial).
"The Guilt Trip" is a small, enjoyable comedy that wasn't meant to be side-splittingly funny. The refreshing thing, though, is that Sreisand carries the film, and she's relaxed, confident, totally unself-conscious, and a very good actress. There's a quick shot at the end of the film where she looks as though she's about to become tearful, and it seemed totally authentic and I actually found myself choking up for a second. Somehow the last few years seem to have made her into a very different person, and her the character she created came across to me as a very likable individual. Sure, parts of the script reminded me of a t.v. sitcom, but they weren't excruciatingly bad (I'd like to have seen more of an explanation as to why the mother became so disappointed upon learning why her son had arranged the final trip to San Francisco; it didn't make total sense to me.) I'm disappointed this film didn't last longer than it did when it was released; it deserved a better run.
"The Guilt Trip" is a small, enjoyable comedy that wasn't meant to be side-splittingly funny. The refreshing thing, though, is that Sreisand carries the film, and she's relaxed, confident, totally unself-conscious, and a very good actress. There's a quick shot at the end of the film where she looks as though she's about to become tearful, and it seemed totally authentic and I actually found myself choking up for a second. Somehow the last few years seem to have made her into a very different person, and her the character she created came across to me as a very likable individual. Sure, parts of the script reminded me of a t.v. sitcom, but they weren't excruciatingly bad (I'd like to have seen more of an explanation as to why the mother became so disappointed upon learning why her son had arranged the final trip to San Francisco; it didn't make total sense to me.) I'm disappointed this film didn't last longer than it did when it was released; it deserved a better run.