not that kevin

I do so adore Jason Segel, forever known to me as Lily's Marshmallow.

He looks like he ought to be a linebacker, but he has the heart of a poet.

I've just watched him as "Jeff, Who Lives At Home", specifically in the basement of his childhood home, much to the chagrin of his office-clerk mom (Sharon, played by Susan Sarandon) and belittlement by his older, married, scheme-following brother (Pat, played by Ed Helms).

Jeff's 30, single, and feels somewhat abandoned since the death of his dad.

As the film opens, he's speaking of the "Signs", and of his always looking for messages from the universe in his daily life to give him guidance and a purpose.

The phone rings, and it's someone looking for Kevin, someone who refuses to believe there is no Kevin at that number.

That rattles him.

Then a commercial urges him to follow his purpose, to do it now!

So, he exits the basement, picks up the money left by his mom for him to fix the kitchen cabinet, and heads out, via bus.

That's where he encounters Kevin... and when that Kevin gets off, so does Jeff, eventually playing a pick-up game of basketball with him and some others.

After, the two strike up a conversation and go off to "put something in the air", and Jeff hasn't taken but two puffs when he finds himself on the ground, wallet gone.

As he wanders in the strange neighborhood, his brother sees him and comes out of the Hooters, where he's been having a 'business' meeting, to find out what's up.

That's when they both notice a familiar car - hey, that's Pat's wife, Linda!

What was she doing there, and who was that guy she was with?

So, Pat has Jeff enter the restaurant where the two go, to eavesdrop on their conversation, and Pat's car gets towed, leaving Jeff on his own for surveillance.

He gets caught when Linda and the guy are leaving and she sees Jeff in the booth.

The two drive off in her car.

Jeff goes to find Pat, and they end up taking a taxi out to the cemetery, where they visit their dad's grave and discover they both dream the same dream of their father, but they have an argument, leaving Pat to take the taxi solo.

That's because Jeff had spotted the Kevin Kandy truck and hopped on the back to see where it would take him.

After a few stops, that Kevin is at a motel to refill its snack machine... and that's where Jeff runs back into Pat's company!

Pat had stopped the taxi when he'd seen Linda's red car (no, not a Corvette) parked in the motel's front lot, but had no luck finding which room she was in.

That changed when the guy she had lunch with came out to the ice machine; the two brothers followed him to the room.

Big confrontation, the guy leaves, Linda and Pat argue, she hops into her car and leaves for her mom's home.

Pat is forlorn, for perhaps the first time ever realizing how much she means to him.

Jeff convinces Pat to pursue her and they hop into a taxi to do just that.

Meanwhile, their mom - who has been having an odd day at work on her birthday - has hopped into a coworker's car and they're going to New Orleans.

So, there they all are, in cars, traveling from here to there, when all traffic in the two lanes comes to a halt on a bridge.

Pat leaves the taxi and starts running, planning to cross the bridge on foot if need be to get to Linda and tell her of his love for her.

Their mom sees Pat run by and gets out of the car to pursue him and find out what he's doing there and where he is going.

Linda sees Pat, too, and they meet on the bridge, as the mom catches up...

and they all watch, amazed, as Jeff sprints past them, running hell bent for leather down the side of right lane...

until he reaches the accident that caused the traffic jam and sees the car that has crashed through the guard rail and is sinking in the river.

He jumps in!

He pulls out two little girls and gets them onto a nearby boat, then goes back to the car.

Their father is still inside!

Then, the father is out and on the surface, but Jeff is still under...

and he's still under...

and Pat leaps in and pulls him up and the Coast Guard get him breathing again and their mom has witnessed these two estranged brothers having a closeness she'd never seen in them for many years, if ever...

and Linda has witnessed her emotionally detached husband becoming passionate and acting without thought to save his brother.

That night, the news has a story about the man who had jumped into the river to save a father and his two little girls...

and the father was Councilman Kevin Landry.

Jeff had followed the signs to the right Kevin after all.

Wow.

 

I'll be watching this one again.

Coincidence that I found it tonight?

Nope.

Right time, right place.