Wanderlust

This hippy commune ‘comedy’, which stars Jennifer Aniston and Judd Apatow regular Paul Rudd, is less funny than watching a penguin die from testicular cancer. Which, as it happens, is the subject of a documentary New York filmmaker Linda (Aniston) fails to pitch to HBO. Coincidentally, her husband George (Rudd) has just been fired from his Wall Street job, so – after a brief, disastrous sojourn at the tasteless Georgia mansion owned by George’s boorish brother Rick (Ken Marino) – they go ‘off the grid’ at Elysium, a free love ‘intentional community’ founded back in 1971 by now-addled Carvin (Alan Alda).Director and co-writer David Wain (‘Role Models’) desperately try to milk the ‘fish out of water’ clash between urban hip and hippy-dippy counter-culture, as the New York couple experiment with veganism, nudism, hallucinogenic tea and, most problematically, free love. Linda is seduced by resident alpha male Seth (Justin Theroux), George resists the wholesome charms of Eva (Malin Akerman). You know you’re in trouble when not even the improvised scenes and fluffed out-takes are funny.