9. The Guilt Trip
The reason this movie is disturbing is because, as the lead example for 2012, it represents the waste of good actors on a bad film. Barbara Streisand is legendary - Glee's Rachel Berry is not the only one to recognise this status. Seth Rogen has performed well in likable roles in the past, such as in his recent portrayal of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's best friend in 50/50. Both Rogen and Streisand have talent of much higher potential than the screenplay for The Guilt Trip offers them. What were their agents thinking? Seth, who is still relatively on the rise in contrast to Streisand's well-established reverence, risks suffering a slight blow to his career based on following a respectable filmography with this lower-grade project. However, Streisand's widely-known fame and acclaim create a problem in themselves; her role as a modest mother of simple means becomes that much less believable. The meagre diluted humour the screenplay offers does not suit Seth Rogen in terms of his strength and reputation in comedy. The film tires of its entertainment value more quickly than a family sing-along of "99 Bottles of Beer," and our desire for it to just end already is the visual equivalent of the exasperated road trip whine, "are we there yet?" As unimaginative as The Guilt Trip is, even worse must be the career-oriented guilt trips Seth and Barbara personally face in regret of ever taking these unambitious roles. It's disturbing - mostly in terms of it being disheartening - to see such great actors have their talent wasted by an unambitious project that does not offer them appropriate fulfilment.