The Daytrippers Reviews

It's the day after Thanksgiving, and Long Island wife Eliza (Hope Davis) finds a note that makes her suspect her husband, Louis (Stanley Tucci), of having an affair with some woman named Sandy. So she, her bickering parents (Anne Meara and Pat McNamara), snotty sister Jo (Parker Posey) and Jo's pretentious boyfriend Carl (Liev Schreiber) all pile into the station wagon and drive into the city so Eliza can talk to Louis face-to-face. From this rather unpromising premise springs a surprisingly rewarding movie that's funny, poignant and expertly constructed. Eliza and her family traipse up and down Lower Manhattan looking for Louis and the elusive Sandy, having colorful run-ins with a variety of neurotic New Yorkers that could, in less skillful hands, be the moviegoing equivalent of a trip to the dentist. But first-time writer-director Greg Mottola has a real feel for characters, a quality that's in disturbingly short supply among young filmmakers. The Malone family could easily be a one-dimensional collection of sitcom caricatures, but by the movie's end they feel like real people. He also pulls off a tricky shift of tone, from pleasant, mild comedy to something far more bitter and haunting. Hope Davis stands out, mostly because until now she's passed unnoticed through a series of throwaway roles in mainstream movies, but the cast is uniformly fine and truly deserves to be called an ensemble. A real find.