5/10
A jump in the river
14 February 2016
Courtney Cox makes her directorial debut in Just Before I Go starring Seann William Scott (Ted) as mild mannered 41 year old who returns to his home town for some final preparations before he commits suicide.

Ted has never felt right since his father died when he was a kid and although a pet shop manager in LA he feels his life is in a rut especially since his girlfriend left him. Haunted by memories of the high school bully, the teacher who tormented him at school he returns to stay with his brother and confront some of these people.

What Ted finds that life is messed up in his home town. His brother, a police officer is obnoxious, might be having an affair. His wife sensing his infidelity breaks into Ted's bedroom at night and openly masturbates in the guise of sleepwalking, his nephew is closeted gay but hangs around bullies.

His old teacher is in a nursing home, the high school bully is now a single parent raising a disabled child. Ted realises that things have changed but is still unsure about himself. He has an affair with a girl who was nice to him at High School even though she is a married mother of five kids and her weight has ballooned.

This dark bitter sweet comedy actually does not start off promisingly and also not very original. Scott gives a low key performance as Ted, miles away from his character in the American Pie films. The film has just too much contrived zany characters and although the film finds it soft centre eventually it does it with a lot of wonkiness and without much laughs.
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