So you know how people mock Garden State as an example of a directorial debut project gone... not exactly wrong, but overwrought? All first-time-director-y? People Like Us is very much the same deal. There are the same close-ups of serious faces and slightly blurred objects that scream "I'm an artist," and, more notably, the plot is similar: a young man who isn't living life to the fullest receives news that a parent has suddenly died, and while dealing with tragedy, meets a woman who will change his life. The difference with this film is that instead of yelling into a crevasse with a manic Natalie Portman, Sam (Chris Pine, swoon) goes to AA meetings with a half-sister he never knew he had, Frankie (Elizabeth Banks, who I guess is just in everything now). by Elinor Jones