Jeff (Jason Segel) is a man in search of signs. Unmoored by the death of his father 15 years ago, he’s now 30 years old, unemployed, and still living at home with his mom, Sharon (Susan Sarandon).
Jeff is waiting for fate — for his destiny–to find him. He has watched “Signs,” the M. Night Shyamalan movie, many times, and has taken to heart its message that there are no coincidences in life, only beacons of meaning. Doing bong hits in the basement one day, he receives a wrong-number phone call seeking someone named Kevin. Jeff doesn’t know any Kevins, but now, sensing yet another sign, he sets out to find one. “What if there are no wrong numbers?” he wonders.
In “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” the writer-directors Jay and Mark Duplass, onetime mumblecore kings, have fashioned a sweet parable about a man’s search for purpose in a world of drifting indifference. The picture has some inventively constructed scenes that stay with you, and some agreeably modulated comic performances, especially by Segel, whose good-natured shlub with something unexpectedly serious on his mind warms the whole movie.
Jeff’s younger brother Pat (Ed Helms) appears to be less of a mess than his muddled sibling. He’s married and has a pretty good job. But it’s Pat who has never really grown up.
Read the full review at Reason.com
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