In This Is Where I Leave You, Jason Bateman and Tina Fey rally against an average script

REVIEW: One of those broad ensemble displays forged from a familiar template — the cracked family reglued together after a loved one’s death.

This Is Where I Leave You (M)

Director:Shawn Levy (Night At the Museum)

Starring:Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Corey Stoll, Adam Driver.

Rating: **1/2

The family that stays together, frays together

A fine cast is ground down by some average material in This Is Where I Leave You.

The movie is one of those broad ensemble displays forged from a familiar narrative template: the cracked family unit temporarily reglued together after the death of a loved one.

The last of this type to hit it big was August: Osage County, and that was really only because Meryl Streep’s over-the-top performance never allowed proceedings to bottom-out to boredom.

Australian involvement ... Actress Rose Byrne as Penny Moore with Jason Bateman as Judd Altman in a scene from This Is where I Leave You.

However, in This Is Where I Leave You, everyone must stick to a smooth script that could have benefited from some inspired roughing up.

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It could have been a whole lot better ... (From left) Tina Fey, Corey Stoll, Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman and Adam Driver as the Altman family in comedy film This Is Where I Leave You.

This production is by no means a shocker, but the feeling never really goes away that it could have been a whole lot better.

Jane Fonda has the Streep slot as Hilary Altman, a domineering matriarch using her late husband’s recent passing as a power play on her grown-up kids.

Though their dead dad was hardly the religious type, the second-generation Altmans are forced by Hilary to observe a ritual of the Jewish faith where they must remain at her side for a week.

It doesn’t take long for the clan to divide into the same factions — and rail against the same ructions — that drove them all apart in the first place.

Look who is back ... Two-time Oscars winner Jane Fonda as Hilary Altman with Jason Bateman as Judd Altman in a scene from Warner Bros Pictures' This Is Where I Live You.

The only two actors who can put any much-needed dirt on this wishy-washy premise are Jason Bateman and Tina Fey.

Bateman plays Judd, an embattled radio producer who has recently discovered his wife is having an affair with the host of the show he works on.

Bateman’s way with a swift sarcastic observation (and later, his easy screen chemistry with Rose Byrne as an old flame) turn around many a scene heading south.

I'd love to know what you guys think of THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU this weekend. Hopefully, you can make it. Lemme know! #TIWILY

— Jason Bateman (@batemanjason) September 19, 2014

Fey’s work as Judd’s older sister Wendy should stand as her best effort on the big screen to date.

Her performance hits a few striking notes that suggest there just has to be a worthwhile “straight” dramatic role in Fey in the near future.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM KARDASHIAN

Originally published as In This Is Where I Leave You, Jason Bateman and Tina Fey rally against an average script