# The Daytrippers

The Daytrippers is a 1996 independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Greg Mottola in his feature directorial debut. It stars Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, Anne Meara, Parker Posey and Liev Schreiber.

## Plot

In the morning after Thanksgiving, Eliza (Hope Davis) discovers a love letter featuring a poem that suggests that her husband Louis (Stanley Tucci) is having an affair with a woman named Sandy. So she decides to go to New York City and confront him. Her family, including her parents Jim (Pat McNamara) and Rita (Anne Meara), her sister Jo (Parker Posey), and Jo's live-in boyfriend Carl (Liev Schreiber), go along for the ride in the family station wagon from Long Island. During the car ride, Carl talks about the book that he's writing. A surrealist story about a man with a dog's head who uses the fame he gets from his deformity to preach his political beliefs.
Eliza and Rita first try to find him at the publishing firm that he works for in the city. Eliza goes to find his boss and while waiting, she runs into Eddie Masler (Campbell Scott), a writer who tells her that the poem featured in the letter is called "The Definition of Love". Louis's boss finally comes to tell her that he's out for the day but that he might be going to a book release party later in the day. Rita then decides to snoop around in his office for evidence and finds a picture of him at a birthday party with a woman.
They then drive to Louis's apartment, and see him getting into a cab with the woman from the picture who they believe to be Sandy. They try to follow him, but get stopped at a red light and lose him. Determined to find out what's going on, Rita gets out of the car to chase her down. But she has no luck and ends up passing out on the sidewalk. Carl asks for help to a stranger he sees getting out of the nearest apartment and they decide to help her. The people in the apartment, a father and son, seem nice and help out the family before the son tells Eliza separately that his father doesn't pay alimony for his other kids and that he practically harboring a criminal.
They leave and head to the book release party that Louis is supposed to be at. Carl and Jo go in to look while everyone else stays in the car. At the party, there is no sign of Louis, but the two run into Eddie there. Jo and Eddie get to talking as Carl tries to say hi to a former teacher and seem to be attracted to each other. Upon Carl's return, Jo brings up that Carl thinks that America should have an aristocracy instead of a democracy, which Eddie finds idiotic and starts an argument about. Carl and Jo leave the party with no luck of finding Louis, but it turns out that Jo left her bag up in the party, so she goes back to get it. She runs into Eddie again while up there and they kiss. She leaves and find that he left his phone number in her phone book.
After this, they all go back to Sandy’s apartment and Eliza goes in to find a party in progress. While waiting, Jo calls Eddie on a payphone, telling Carl that she's checking her machine. Carl sees this which prompts an argument in which she says that she hates him. At the party, Eliza spots the woman she believes to be Sandy, only to find out that it's not. She goes to the roof and sees Louis kissing the real Sandy, who is actually a man. He tries to explain as she storms out and the rest of her family is disgusted upon seeing who Sandy really is. Rita makes Eliza get in the car, but Jim asks what Eliza wants to do, not Rita. They then both tell Rita to shut up. Eliza gets out and argues with Louis, eventually storming off again. Jo chases after her as the rest of the family stays in the car. They talk and the film closes with them walking off into the city.

## Cast

* Stanley Tucci as Louis D'Amico
* Hope Davis as Eliza Malone D'Amico
* Pat McNamara as Jim Malone
* Anne Meara as Rita Malone
* Parker Posey as Jo Malone
* Liev Schreiber as Carl Petrovic
* Campbell Scott as Eddie Masler
* Marcia Gay Harden as Libby
* Douglas McGrath as "Chap"
* Peter Askin as Nick Woodman
* Paul Herman as Leon

## Release

The Daytrippers premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in January 1996 where it won the festival’s first Grand Jury Prize. The film was released in the United States on March 5, 1997. The film opened to 52 theaters and grossed $35,988 in its opening weekend. Overall, the film grossed $2,099,677 domestically. It also received a theatrical release in Australia during October 1997.

## Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 74% based on reviews from 27 critics. On Metacritic it has a score of 73% based on reviews from 18 critics.
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a grade B and compared to the film to David O. Russell's Flirting With Disaster but praised director Mottola as having "a lighter, warmer touch" and that he "keeps the action flowing and gets lively work" from the cast.
On March 28, 1997, Desson Howe of The Washington Post remarked that "The Daytrippers proves that a great movie isn’t a matter of dollars, so much as creativity." In April 1997, Robin Dougherty of Salon also gave it a positive review, calling it "well-crafted", and commenting that "despite the bite independent films took of last year's Oscar field, our movie industry — and our movie-going habits — aren't really supportive of writer-directors whose scope is that of a short-story teller rather than an epic mythmaker." Janet Maslin of The New York Times commented that "the main action of The Daytrippers is bright, real and even poignant enough to make this journey worth the ride." Maslin also praised Posey's performance, commenting that "Jo is played by Parker Posey once again [as] the apotheosis of blase cool."
A negative review at the time came from Siskel and Ebert, who gave the film two thumbs down on the March 8, 1997 episode of their program. Gene Siskel questioned why the movie was even made in the first place, while Roger Ebert commented that, "I got real tired of these characters, they were all whiney and negative [...] they get old real fast, especially Anne Meara."

## Awards

| Year | Award | Category | Project | Result |
| 1996 | Cannes Film Festival | Golden Camera | Greg Mottola | Nominated |
| 1996 | Slamdance Film Festival | Grand Jury Prize | Greg Mottola | Won |
| 1996 | Deauville Film Festival | Grand Special Prize | Greg Mottola | Won |
| 1996 | National Board of Review | Special Recognition | Greg Mottola | Won |
| 1996 | Toronto International Film Festival | FIPRESCI - Special Mention | Greg Mottola | Won |