Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand make a snappy comic duo in this road movie about a tetchy mother-son relationship. He plays Andy, a chemist who's invented a nontoxic cleanser. She's Joyce, a Joizy widow whose high spirits have dampened in middle age. They embark on a cross-country drive during which Andy has a series of mostly disastrous pitch meetings. He's planned a surprise on the West Coast — but will they get there before he throttles her? Mommy annoys and embarrasses her bubele, but she also teaches him that he needs to sell himself before he can market his product. Rogen adroitly finds humor in Andy's frustration with the gulf between where he wants his life to be and where it actually is. Streisand awakens the comic persona that's been hibernating since Yentl, and has her requisite verklempt moments. Dan Fogelman's script could have been more ambitious (like Albert Brooks's Mother), but in the hands of director Anne Fletcher it's enjoyably breezy.
