Few ensemble laughs in 'This is Where I Leave You'

THE TITLE "This is Where I Leave You" refers to what Suspension of Disbelief says to your Rational Mind the minute the movie starts.

A father dies, his last wish is for his family to gather to mourn him for seven days and so a bunch of kooky siblings (Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Corey Stoll) and their kooky mother (Jane Fonda) spend a week in their hometown getting on each other's last nerve.

Sure. Tina Fey and Adam Driver are related. And Jane Fonda is their mom. And sure, during the seven days every character has a major life peak - an affair, a breakup, a make-up, a career jolt, brawl in the front yard. Somebody's having baby, somebody can't get pregnant, some toddler's walking around with a potty saying "poopy" every 10 minutes.

It's all flagrantly artificial, and also kind of painless. The script (drawn from Jonathan Tropper's comic novel) is full of wisecracks, some are funny, and this is a cast that knows what to do with light comedy. The movie is smart to use the stoic and subtle Bateman as a sort of leveling, credible counterpoint to the incredible noise of the script.

Does the movie achieve the emotional resonance it sneakily strives for in the end?

Well, no, it's too fake for that.

And too weirdly similar to every other fake family movie ensemble Hollywood movie you've ever seen.

Hey, mom and dad smoke pot, too!

My libertine baby-boomer parent is way too candid about sex!

And here's a weird wrinkle you thought might be unique to last year's dad's-funeral, dysfunctional-family-reuinion movie, "August Osage County" - the woman who falls for the guy who's slow-on-the-uptake. Here, the glassy-eyed hunk is Timothy Olyphant, who's been left addled by brain damage he suffered on a car crash on the way to lovers lane.

We're meant to believe all these things happened when these folks were teens, leading to uncomfortable questions about how old the characters are, versus the actors who play them.

Also, Bateman's character does a lot of moping for a guy who's being pursued by gorgeous Rose Byrne, the Girl Who Stayed Behind and apparently has done nothing but wait for him to return - a character you can also find in the upcoming, dysfunctional-family-reuinion-at-MOM'S-funeral movie, "The Judge."