DVD Review: Sitcom roots show in Cox’s directorial debut
The “Scream” series notwithstanding, Courteney Cox has spent most of her career in the sitcom universe, so it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that her directorial feature debut, “Just Before I Go,” seems to be in that universe as well. The film had only a brief theatrical run before heading to VOD and home video, but it loses very little in the transition to the small screen.
Seann William Scott plays Ted Morgan, a 40-ish guy whose life has gone nowhere. He’s in a run-of-the-mill middle-management position, and his marriage — the one bright spot in his life — has fallen apart. His wife’s parting shot, characterizing the nothingness of his existence, is “You might as well be dead.” Ouch.
He decides she’s right and begins planning his suicide. But before that he has some unfinished business to take care of — settling scores with the people who ground him down to nothing in the first place. He flies back to his home town, where he stays with big brother Ted (Garret Dillahunt), an obnoxious meathead who is blind to the problems besetting his own family.
When Ted confronts his two most important surviving tormentors — an elementary school teacher (Beth Grant) and the school bully (Rob Riggle) — he realizes that their behavior was not without reason.
For the first third, the story seems like Ted’s narration, incidentally illustrated visually. Things perk up — first when a wannabe documentarian (Olivia Thirlby) insists on filming his quest, and secondly when Riggle (“The Daily Show,” “21 Jump Street”) shows up. Both help make the rest of the film go down more smoothly.
There is only one extra on the disk, a commentary track from Cox. On the upside: Unlike a lot of commentaries, this one is not nonstop; if Cox doesn’t have something specific to say at a certain point, she doesn’t feel obliged to fill in every moment of the hour-and-a-half running time with ramblings. The downside: If ever there was an argument against solo commentaries, this is it. Without anyone to interact with, Cox sounds lost; her natural energy is completely muted.
Just Before I Go (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, $26.99; DVD, $22.98)
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).