The Estate is a 2022 comedy written and directed by Dean Craig (Death at a Funeral), and is produced by Marc Goldberg, Sarah Gabriel, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Alison Benson.

Two sisters try to win over their terminally ill, difficult-to-please aunt in hopes of becoming the beneficiaries of her wealthy estate, only to find the rest of their greedy family has the same idea.

The talented cast includes Toni Collette, Anna Faris, David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Kathleen Turner, Patricia French, and Danny Vinson.

The Estate made its debut in theaters on November 4th.

THE GOOD

Somehow this movie literally appeared out of thin air considering I hadn’t even heard of it until it popped up on the release calendar at my local theater. Once I saw this stacked cast it baffled me that it could have flown under-the-radar for me like it did, but here we are. I watched the trailer for The Estate and was immediately intrigued by the potential for this R-rated comedy which seem to be fairly rare these days. So, needless to say I made my way to the theater on opening day to see The Estate so that you would know whether or not it is worth the price of admission. Keep reading to find out!

Alright so just like the movie itself, I am going to keep this short and sweet. I’m not going to sit here and sing the praises for The Estate from the rooftops or anything, but I enjoyed this movie for what it was and thought writer-director Dean Craig serves up some quality entertainment. I went in with realistic expectations, and for me it delivered. The premise was very simple allowing viewers the opportunity to shut their brains off and focus on the great cast, and I really enjoyed the characters. The dynamic between Toni Collette and Anna Faris in the lead roles worked well, and I also liked the rivalry between their characters and their seemingly uppity cousin played by Rosemarie DeWitt. Plus, I love me some Ron Livingston who plays a fish-out-of-water character as DeWitt’s husband, and the only non-family member who quickly realizes he needs to get the heck out of dodge.

The ageless and legendary Kathleen Turner was amazing as expected, but my favorite character was undoubtedly perverted cousin Richard from Florida, played by David Duchovny. Each time his character with the spray tan and ridiculous mustache was on-screen, I had a smile on my face. He had some great off the cuff one-liners that had me cracking up. I often felt like he was afforded the opportunity to adlib which was a great decision by the writing team in my opinion. Speaking of, I would love to see the outtakes for this movie. If you can keep a straight face looking at this guy in his fancy tracksuit sipping bourbon from a gold rimmed glass, you are stronger than I am.

I was also pleasantly surprised by actress Keyla Monterroso Mejia, who played the oddball Dungeons and Dragons loving half-sister of Collette and Faris. I also have to give a shout out to Danny Linson, Patricia French, and Gichi Gamba for their effective supporting roles. Linson in particular was great. Like I said the story itself was simple yet effective, and I thought the film thrived with the awkward character interactions that often caught the unsuspecting “normal” characters by surprise.

THE BAD

As with most comedies, the majority of the funny parts were shown in the trailer which always annoys me. I mean sure, I still laughed at the majority of them because they were still funny, but I wasn’t surprised by nearly as many not shown in the trailer scenes as I was hoping for. I also felt like to an extent they squandered such a talented cast in terms of the films ceiling, but part of me feels like that was by design. Anna Faris sort of channeled her character in the Mom sitcom, and Tony Collette Rosemarie Dewitt were really good as usual, just not great. Plus it is definitely dry humor which may not do it for some viewers.

The acting in general just felt sort of average with nobody really trying too hard to separate themselves from the pack. The story was definitely predictable, but again not a deal breaker. If I’m being honest, I would have preferred the film to center on Duchovny and his character, but that is probably more so because I like that brand of humor. So yeah, I could go on and on if I wanted to try and pick this movie apart, but The Estate has a clear identity from the start which made it easy for me to sit back and appreciate it for what it was. Also if you have an issue with profanity, you better sit this one out because the swear jar is basically a Powerball ticket by the end.

THE VERDICT

A run-of-the-mill raunchy comedy that often feels like a feature-length sitcom, The Estate won’t win over audiences expecting more but offers plenty of laughs for those willing to accept a well deserved hour and a half escape with some ridiculous characters. As I mentioned in the review I do feel like they could have accomplished more with such a talented cast at their disposal, but I also understand the fact that they weren’t going for substance. I had fun with the characters and I was satisfied with the story as a whole, and I did like the ending. Plus, I would come back for more of Duchovny and now I feel like I need to go re-watch his hilarious comedy series Californication. This is a project that the cast clearly enjoyed working on, and for my money The Estate serves its purpose and is a nice reminder that raunchy comedies do still deserve the theater treatment, at least in my opinion anyway.