Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
After flying home to L.A. for the funeral of his estranged record-producer father, a struggling man discovers that the will stipulates that he must deliver $150,000 in cash to a 30-year-old alcoholic sister he never knew existed, and her troubled 12-year-old son.
People Like Us is a competent but fairly conventional family drama. The central premise of a secret sibling and the emotional inheritance journey provides some genuine dramatic tension, and the performances from Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks are solid if not exceptional. However, the story follows a predictable arc of estrangement, discovery, and reconciliation without subverting genre expectations. The cinematography is functional and unobtrusive but unremarkable for a mainstream drama. The film's novelty is limited as it treads well-worn territory of family secrets and emotional healing. The ending resolves the emotional threads satisfactorily without surprising the audience. A watchable, emotionally earnest film that doesn't distinguish itself visually or narratively.