Truly one of the funniest, most original films of the mid 90's. The casting is truly inspired-Anne Meara gives a knockout performance as an overbearing, but well-meaning suburban mother; Hope Davis is marvelous (as usual) as an optimistic, sort of numb wife on a mission to see if her husband is indeed cheating on her; Liev Schreiber is wonderful as the superb Parker Posey's aspiring writer boyfriend; Campbell Scott steals the movie as a lusty writer Eddie; and of course Stanley Tucci turns in another great performance as the catalyst character in the film. His screen time is brief, but he shines brightly. Marcia Gay Harden's cameo as a neurotic party guest had me practically on the floor laughing. The story unfolds naturally, taking the viewer on the same emotional journey as the characters. There's never a dull moment, and the film is an indie classic filled with thought-provoking dialogue and terrific character sketches.

"The Daytrippers" is a script-driven open ended comedy about a semifunctional family (an ensemble cast including mom, dad, two adult daughters, and a boyfriend) who drive into Manhattan in search of a one of the daughters' wayward husband. With nonstop pseudointellectual pedantic blathering from beginning to end, this uneventful flick takes you along for the ride where you'll suffer from small talk, an explanation of the boyfriend's work-in-progress novel, a silly conversation about politics, an encounter involving the carrying of a t.v. set, and other such pedestrianisms resulting in a mediocre flick which fails in script. "The Daytrippers" might best be described as some really bad Woody Allen which is almost rescued by a solid cast. (C)

The early to mid 1990s produced countless films in relation to the romantic spectrum, and I was expecting The Daytrippers to be another one of them. Whereas I found the "comedy" portion of the movie to be misleading, I still found it to be a worthwhile and decent film. Not all movies need to be entirely deep or philisophical, and this one was a nice change to a lot of what I've seen lately.Eliza Eliza D'Amico (Hope Davis) is walking through her bedroom one morning when she stumbles on a curious love note scribed to her husband. Wanting to get to the bottom of it, she brings the note to the attention of her parents, sister, and the sister's boyfriend Carl.Collectively, they travel to New York for the day to investigate.Along the way, Carl (Liev Schreiber) tells the family all about his "Dr. Seuss for adults" novel he's writing, and the mother (Anne Meara) eats her heart out as his intellectual merryment. Eventually, of course, all havoc breaks loose, as everyone's nerves are wrought by each other, and the trip turns into an explosive dramatic result.The Daytrippers is an actually interesting movie in that it isn't 100% predictable, and leaves a little bit to the audience's guessing with the hanger ending. The weakest faults of the movie are that some of the scenes are entirely pointless, and the film is so short that it seems they tried to fill it with a bit of crap to lengthen it. Otherwise, the film has a lot of interesting little plotlines which could easily produce better spin-offs.

This is a hilarious film... beautifully-written, hysterically-acted, excellently directed. Rent it. See it. Liev Schrieber is great, and so is Parker Posey. Greg Mottola will be, one day, a great director. He's also a very funny writer, and was able to make a story that's both moving and funny.