“Wanderlust” is a silly mess of a comedy in the way it tries to mock a hippie lifestyle while still grooving off their good vibrations.
David Wain’s film follows New York married couple George and Linda (Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston) to the Elysium commune in Georgia after they lose their jobs and apartment, a place where every hippie cliché ever imagined is piled on to a disturbing degree.
George and Linda are the only two characters not on an extreme end of the spectrum, be it the free loving, voodoo chanting, nature embracing and technologically challenged Seth (Justin Theroux) or George’s aggressive, douchebag brother Rick (Ken Marino).
Rudd is amusing in small-scale moments when the script allows one of the normals to be funny, namely because he will say yes to any bit, no matter how ridiculous.
But the movie’s screwball nature to top itself can be overwhelming and just plain gross. Not even an actor as likeable as Rudd can make carrying a newborn’s placenta around funny.
2 stars