Are You Here | Film review - Wilson and Galifianakis play to type as slick charmer and manic weirdo

ARE YOU HERE - Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis

Womanising TV weatherman Owen Wilson travels to Amish country to helps his pot-addled, bipolar buddy Zach Galifianakis deal with his father’s death and takes a shine to the dead man’s much younger widow (Laura Ramsey) in Are You Here, an oddly uneven comedy-drama from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner. Wilson and Galifianakis are very much playing to type as slick charmer and manic weirdo, but the movie around them is much less predictable, veering off in strange directions and never finding a consistent tone. Despite some sweet and funny touches, overall it must count as a misfire, not least for wasting comedy icon Amy Poehler in the thankless role of Galifianakis’s bitter sister.

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Certificate 15. Runtime 111 mins. Director Matthew Weiner.

Lionsgate UK present Are You Here to watch on demand and download to own and in cinemas now

Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.