Finally! A film that I can recommend to both my septuagenarian mother and my teenage niece. This Is Where I Leave You is a warm, entertaining, dysfunctional family film that fits comfortably between the gross and outrageous slapstick of an Adam Sandler pic, and the overwrought, over-acted, self-important emotionalism of August, Osage County.

I read and quite liked the book of the same name by Jonathan Tropper, who also wrote the screenplay, but I think I enjoyed the film even more, which rarely happens. It might be because the story, about a family sitting shiva for the father, gets a bit bogged down in the book, with a little too much self indulgence and introspection from the protagonist, a 40-ish guy whose life implodes just prior to his father’s passing.

In contrast, director Shawn Levy (Date Night, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day) moves the film right along, and you can’t seem to get enough of the extraordinary, if not all together likable, characters. This is in part due to the superlative casting choices. Jason Bateman is at his best in the lead and Jane Fonda has never been better as his surgically enhanced mother, a bestselling child psychology author. Tina Fey is his neurotic sister, Corey Stoll his stolid big brother, and Adam Driver (Girls, Inside Llewyn Davis) is the youngest sibling and absolutely mesmerizing, serving notice that he is one of the most brilliant up and comers in entertainment today. Other good cast members include Timothy Olyphant, Rose Byrne, Connie Britton, Ben Schwartz and Dax Shepard. They play their rolls perfectly, and you feel as if you’re living through this with them, rather than watching actors on the screen.

No, it’s not a perfect film. There are a few lulls, some of the subplots and characters could have been a bit better developed, and there is a truly heinous wig, but for the most part, it’s just a good time at the movies. And these days, that’s enough.

Rated R

1 hour, 43 minutes