Barbra Streisand’s “Guilt Trip” Moved Up A Week Ahead Of Bette Midler’s “Parental Guidance”

Examiner
Barbra Streisand–Seth Rogen‘s ‘The Guilt Trip’ will now open on December 19th
OCTOBER 30, 2012BY: ALLISON WALDMAN

Today, Paramount Pictures announced that instead of opening on December 25, the Barbra Streisand-Seth Rogen comedy “The Guilt Trip” will arrive in U.S. theaters on December 19, 2012. That’s six days earlier than Christmas Day, and places it in the heart of the holiday film season. It will also have a jump on the Bette Midler-Billy Crystal comedy “Parental Guidance,” which is perceived by some as a similar product and might have lead to confusion by consumers.

Now, “The Guilt Trip” is slated to vie with Buena Vista’s revival of “Monsters, Inc.” and Sony/Columbia’s war drama “Zero Dark Thirty.”
“The Guilt Trip” is a comedy, but with quite a few dramatic flourishes and poignant moments. In that way, it will be a unique family feature, one with universal appeal. It’s directed by Anne Fletcher (“The Proposal”) from a screenplay by Dan Fogelman (“Crazy Stupid Love“).

This is Barbra Streisand’s first starring role since “The Mirror Has Two Faces” in 1996, although she was prominently featured in the hugely successful comedies “Meet the Fockers” and “Little Fockers.” It’s her first pairing with Seth Rogen, and the picture is highly anticipated, generating a lot of buzz in the Internet site IMDB.

In the film, Seth plays Andy Brewster, an inventor who invites his mother, Joyce, on a road trip purportedly to sell his product. However, Andy’s secret motive is to reunite his mother with the man she loved before she married his father. When mother and son embark on the cross-country trip from New Jersey to San Francisco, unexpected adventures occur and they reach a new level of understanding.