While settling his recently deceased father's estate, a salesman discovers he has a sister whom he never knew about, leading both siblings to re-examine their perceptions about family and life choices.
Banks is great, but when the chemistry between the step-siblings drifts weirdly and carelessly into incest territory, they are clearly not people like us.
The saving grace here is Pfeiffer, who dares to look pale, ill and resentful for much of the film, an intense performance wasted on this oddball story.
Essentially a sub-Cameron Crowe vomit-fest.
The long-deferred truth bomb remains a maddening dramatic device at the best of times, and Alex Kurtzman’s banal therapeutic exercise is very much not the best of times.
People won't.
Glib tosh.
The title is an absurd misnomer: these aren't people like us, they're people like you see in movies, obeying movie-ish standards of behaviour.
Contrived and overplotted, People Like Us still works as a wallow of a tearjerker thanks to a strong cast.
There are tiny elements which impress, but Pine's reformed shyster is hard horse to want to back.
The laudable attempts at realism are ultimately overtaken by the usual mushiness, complete with moral messages, but for a while People Like Us dares to be a bit different and is all the better for it.
General release. Check local listings for show times.