Are You Here movie review (trailer)
Chubby Zach Galifianakis is becoming stereotyped as a crazy, unpredictable, off-the-wall character.
BAND OF BROTHERS. From left, Owen Wilson as Steve Dallas and Zach Galifianakis as Ben Baker.
He is no different in writer-director Matthew Weiner’s drama, Are You Here, which touches on subjects such as loneliness, the transformative powers of drugs for the mentally unstable, friendship and family ties.
Weiner, whose credits include Mad Men and The Sopranos, shines light on mental illness, though he does not explore the subject with any great depth.
Galifianakis plays Ben Baker, a young man who suffers from bipolar disorder. A recluse, he smokes a lot of weed and has grand ideas about saving the planet. His close friend is the womanising Steve Dallas (Wilson), a TV weatherman.
When Ben’s wealthy estranged father dies Ben is left a massive inheritance and relies on Steve’s influence to keep him out of trouble.
Ben’s bitchy, loud-mouthed, business-minded sister Terri (Poehler) is left a “measly” $350 000 and decides to contest her father’s will.
Are You Here is not a comedy, even though it offers light-hearted moments, and these comic elements hide something deeper and darker.
Are You Here is a fetching cinematic offering, but too diluted in content to make a more substantial cerebral experience.
