Guilt Trip, The MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +3 Content: -2

Director: Ann Fletcher. Main Characters: Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen.

FILM SYNOPSIS:Chemist Andrew (Rogen) invites his mom Joyce (Streisand) to join him as he drives from New Jersey to San Francisco in an effort to sell his newly invented household cleaner. For both the unemployed inventor and his smothering mother, sharing a motel room and three meals a day creates unbearable tension. She thinks she can sell his product and he thinks he can rescue her from loneliness – a perfect formula for disaster.

PREVIEW REVIEW:For moms who worry about grown single children and grown single children who have no clue about relating to an overbearing mom, The Guilt Trip may be both therapeutic and painful. For the rest of us, however, this movie about Joyce and her son Andrew on a cross-country road trip will be both humorous and touching.

Andrew changes his whole attitude about his mom as he witnesses her winning a bet in a West Texas steakhouse. The restaurant offers its 52-ounce, $100 steak dinner free to anyone who can finish the steak. Cheered on by a crowd of cowboys, Joyce eats every bite to her son’s amazement. The Guilt Trip avoids being a silly just-for-laughs story as both learn to accept, forgive and enjoy each other. The apparent mutual respect and affection the actors have for each other gives the characters they play believability.

This movie is rated PG-13 for some language, and there is some sexually suggestive dialogue on an audiotape in the car, but there is no sex, nudity or violence. Joyce deliberately gets drunk in the motel bar after a particularly harsh confrontation with Andrew. The thought-provoking subject will appeal to adults more than teenagers. Men who enjoy action movies may not be willing to pay the price of a ticket and may decide to skip this mother/son road trip movie.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Paramount Pictures