The Reel Review
Toni Collette, Anna Faris and Kathleen Turner star in this 2022 comedy about a couple of sisters trying to ingratiate themselves to their wealthy, difficult-to-please, terminally ill aunt to inherit her estate and save their cafe, only to discover upon arriving at her mansion that they are competing with their greedy cousins for her affections – and money.
What is incredible about The Estate is how writer/director Dean Craig, writer of the cute 2007 farcical comedy Death at a Funeral, was able to convince such a talented, award-winning cast to participate in his shockingly humorless and tasteless slog of a comedy. The Estate is painfully bad.
Other than a few minor chuckles from David Duchovny as the lecherous, inappropriately flirtatious first cousin, there is nothing even slightly redeeming about this dull, predictable film. The cast has no onscreen chemistry, the story isn’t funny, and their characters are universally loathsome.
REEL FACTS
• Toni Collette worked with David Duchovny in 2004’s Connie and Carla and Rosemarie DeWitt in the 2009 Showtime series United States of Tara.
• Ron Livingston (The Conjuring, Sex and the City) and Rosemarie DeWitt (La La Land, Rachel Getting Married) have been married since 2009 and have two daughters.
• David Duchovny says writer/director Craig Dean asked him to help choose the funniest prosthetic penis for the scene in the film’s third act.
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