Director and co-writer Richard Linklater's adaptation of the 2012 bestseller by Maria Semple follows a devoted mom (Cate Blanchett) but an otherwise abominable human being as she goes through mental difficulties after devastating setbacks in her architectural career. When a proposed family trip with her successful computer programmer husband (Billy Crudup) and middle-school-aged daughter (Emma Nelson) sets off her anxiety, she perpetrates a few horrifying incidents, is subjected to an intervention and, in response, disappears. While the film has value as a springboard for conversations about something everyone has to deal with — namely, failure — it doesn't quite live up to the quality of some of Linklater's other work. Possibly acceptable for older teens.

Watch out for: Drug use, a few crude and crass terms.

Rated: A-III, adults; MPAA: PG-13