Summer is the traditional time for superheroes and blockbusters, so it’s fitting that this middling melodrama would come from the writing team behind the Transformers franchise. Co-writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who also directs in his feature debut) explore the bonds of family in the sweet but largely ineffectual People Like Us. When struggling businessman Chris Pine (Star Trek) attends his estranged father’s funeral, he’s bequeathed $150,000 in cash to give to the sister he didn’t know he had. Elizabeth Banks proves her versatility as an actress yet again as the long-lost sister and alcoholic single mother. For that matter, the whole cast is on point, including Michelle Pfeiffer as Pine’s worn-down hippie mother. But plot mechanics meant to draw out drama instead wash away the smaller human moment the film excels at. These People would be nice to know, just not in this movie.
This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2012.