Conversely, Seth Rogen has shown real ambition in growing his career, taking a mix of bold risks and big projects. His leading performance in Observe And Report was a risky one, all but forgotten because the film itself didn’t work. Furthermore, in the past five years, five films have been released that Rogen has co-written, and this summer, we get his directorial debut with This In The End. This is not a man to stand still. Sadly, and you’re right to suspect this is coming, put the pair of them in a car together for the bulk of a movie, and it never gels in the way it should. They simply never spark in the way both are capable of, and The Guilt Trip becomes, for a good stretch, a chore of a movie. The basic setup sees Rogen as the inventor of a new cleaning product, which he’s planning a Stateside road trip to sell. For reasons a little bit forced – although that in itself isn’t a problem – Rogen decides to take his penny-pinching-yet-environmentally-friendly mother along. Yet as good an actress as Streisand is when she’s on form, a penny-pinching mother is one role she’s never going to sell. And she doesn’t, bluntly. The film’s no write-off though. It adheres very strictly to a three act structure, so much so that you can almost see the page breaks on screen, but as it heads towards its conclusion, it delivers its best scene. Streisand finally goes out of her comfort zone a little as she and Rogen hit a Texas steakhouse, and while guffaws are still absent, the film does find a bit of mirth. It also finds some heart near the end, as for a couple of minutes, the relationship between Rogen and Streisand works. But it’s not enough. And while the slight concept is part of the problem, there’s still mileage to be had in a slightly contrived road movie. The problem is that The Guilt Trip, much like the Google Map we see at the start, is so clearly mapped out, that the only way it was ever going to fully deliver was if its two stars did. They don’t, and it doesn’t. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here