The Guilt Trip

Review by Pete Roche

The passengers in road trip movies are usually best buds or soul-mates (THELMA & LOUISE), mismatched professionals (MIDNIGHT RUN), or happenstance polar opposites whose Oscar and Felix personalities test each others’ limits (PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES, DUE DATE). 

THE GUILT TRIP tweaks the formula by setting salesman Andy Brewster (Seth Rogan) on a cross-country drive in a cramped car with his overbearing single middle-aged mother, Joyce (Barbara Streisand).  Organic chemist Andy must pitch the biodegradable cleaning agent he’s invented to wholesalers in several major markets from New Jersey to San Francisco.  He funded the project with his father's inheritance, so he’s determined to hide his lack of success from his proud mother.