People Like Us

A glib salesman (Chris Pine) flies to Los Angeles for his estranged father’s funeral, where he learns for the first time that he has a half-sister (Elizabeth Banks); he makes her acquaintance without telling who he is, and becomes involved with her and her son (Michael Hall D’Addario). Written by Roberto Orci, Jody Lambert and director Alex Kurtzman, the movie gets off to a contrived and rocky start (D’Addario’s role is particularly poorly written). But something happens along the way; the raw, vulnerable sincerity of Pine and Banks’ performances gets under our skin, and the movie rises above its Lifetime-channel trappings to become something sharper, more keenly observed. The final scene is especially poignant. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Pine’s mother, Olivia Wilde his patient girlfriend; both are excellent.