Product Details

• Actors: Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, Pat McNamara
• Directors: Greg Mottola
• Writers: Greg Mottola
• Producers: Campbell Scott, David Heyman, Jonathan Stern, Larry Kamerman, Nancy Tenenbaum
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: July 7, 1998
• Run Time: 87 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0800197119
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #231,327 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When a suburban housewife, Eliza (Hope Davis), discovers a love letter in her husband's pocket, it starts a wild, quirky, and ultimately poignant journey through the strained relationships of her entire dysfunctional family. Thinking it must be some misunderstanding, she brings the letter to her unbearably dominating mother (Anne Meara), who freaks and piles her passive husband (Pat McNamara), Eliza's promiscuous sister (Parker Posey), and her philosophical fiancé (Liev Schreiber) into a station wagon and heads off to New York City for an explanation. First-time writer/director Gregg Mottola changes the road movie's typically vast and open landscape to a claustrophobic, bustling urban setting but still uses it as a way to force out unspoken emotional turmoil between all three of the couples. His dialogue is often sharp and perceptive, and while the situations often contain huge laughs, an undercurrent of pain lurks just beneath the humor. The indie film uses conversations instead of plot to drive its action, and therefore needs engaging performances to succeed. With the exception of the one-note Posey, it gets them: Davis and Schreiber both play pathos and humor beautifully, and Stanley Tucci's cameo as the suspect husband--and the heartbreaking rooftop dance he performs--provides a surprising and ambiguous conclusion. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing, well executed., July 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Daytrippers [VHS] (VHS Tape)

For the most part, I agree with the other reviews I've seen here, with two exceptions, and I'll concentrate on those. Describing the Parker Posey character as "promiscuous" and "one-note" is, I believe, missing the mark. The day trip is significant for her in that as it continues, her feelings for her boyfriend are tested as she hears him express his views and describe the book he's writing, then sees his views tested by a man of strong intellect (who also tests her commitment to the relationship). And I think that the reason that Ann Meara makes another viewer want to put a hole in his TV is that she is so on-target with her portrayal of a controlling mother and wife. This film is, for the most part, funny, but it is ultimately surprising, sad, and touching.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ., February 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Daytrippers [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A charming, pleasant little comedy, which avoids triteness, and all-too-easy cliches, quite admirably. As they say, this is the kind of flick that gives independant films a good name. I found the humor of the film richly appealing primarily because it never imposes itself on you. Amusing situations are allowed to be amusing in and of themselves; they aren't centered around specific jokes that are being shoved at you. As a result of its subtlety, the movie is never quite hilarious -- but what it gains is a consistent atmosphere of agreeable charm and surprisingly three-dimensional characters. The attempt to mix in such intense drama towards the end of the film feels a bit heavy-handed, and is maybe a bit overdone; and the ending itself is a bit befuddling and mildly unsatisfactory. Yet these qualms are minor, and well outweighed by the film's merits.

Liev Schreiber is a treat as Posey's boyfriend, and Campbell Scott pops up, amusingly, as a sleazy author. Hope Davis fits her role like a glove, and is also one of the cutest women I've ever seen. All in all, a fine movie, and a very agreeable way to pass 90 minutes.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars New transfer badly needed, January 12, 2010

By 

Gregory N. (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Daytrippers (DVD)

The film is outstanding -- Mottola's best, in my opinion.

However, this review is of the DVD itself. The transfer is soft with a lot of compression artifacts that distort the image. The most glaring flaw, though, is that (like its region 2 counterpart) the film is presented in a 1.33:1 ratio rather than the original widescreen. I've held off on owning this for quite a few years, waiting for it to be presented in its original aspect ratio. Not at least getting the option of seeing the film's original framing as it was composed for theaters is a rare situation in the DVD (and now Blu-Ray) era, and I don't want to encourage this blunder with a purchase.
Superbad and Adventureland were both pretty popular, so why no new release of their outstanding predecessor, with a nice anamorphic transfer?