A great ensemble cast is wasted in This is Where I Leave You, a trite and incredibly silly comedic drama about a dysfunctional secular family caught in a mournful rut.

In this highly propagandised era of “Modern Families” it makes sense that Hollywood would continue to present stories about whacky families and their odd dilemmas. After all, divorce, unwanted pregnancy, adultery, scandalous affairs (heterosexual and otherwise) and other assorted domestic situations suited to an episode of Friends are what gets the green light from studios. Ma, Pa, son and daughter sharing a family dinner does not.

Yet while dysfunctional in the new normal in the eyes of Hollywood, very rarely does it equate to good cinema. Case in point is This is Where I Leave You, an adaptation of Jonathan Trooper’s novel that boasts a cast of Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver and Rose Byrne…yet does very little with their respective talents.

This is Where I Leave You focuses on the Altman clan, an estranged secular Jewish family that come together for the funeral of their beloved patriarch, who despite being an atheist requests on his death bed that his family sit for “Shiva”, a Jewish ritual where first-degree relatives gather for a week and receive visitors. Almost immediately the plot device loses its symbolic strength, as the participants view any form of religious practice or spirituality as a waste of time.

So it’s up to the individual characters to try and bring some substance to the film, as they attempt to redeem their messed up lives. There is middle brother Judd (Jason Bateman) who is dealing with his wife’s adultery; Wendy (Tina Fey) the older sister and married mother of two who still has feelings for her teenage love (Timothy Olyphant); and the youngest brother Philip (Adam Driver) the black-sheep of the family who is sleeping with his psychiatrist (Connie Britton).

Yet despite the valiant attempts by personable actors to inject come personality in this bland comedy, This is Where I Leave You instead presents a checklist of “dramedy” clichés that have been executed in much better ways in much better movies. By the time one character comes out of the closet with an out of nowhere kiss, groans can be heard in response to how forcefully pretentious and ridiculous the whole scenario has become.

The director of This is Where I Leave You is Shawn Levy. Despite over a dozen credits to his name, he has yet to deliver that critical darling that can elevate his stature above "the man behind Night at the Museum". Unfortunately for him and us This is Where I Leave You is not that film. The material is wanting, the cast under-utilised, and the direction straight to DVD quality.

Dysfunctional may be hip, but movies about dysfunctional families have become tiresome. This is Where I Leave You is the blandest yet.