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THE PUFFY CHAIR Send This Review to a Friend
A road picture about relationships, “The Puffy Chair,” directed by Jay Duplass, is a puffy piece of filmmaking dealing with lovers who have to decide whether they really should be together. Since the young man and woman in question are hardly worth our worrying about, the film doesn’t have much more going for it than a few entertaining moments here and there.
Josh, played by Mark Duplass, who wrote the screenplay with his director brother Jay, has trouble making a commitment to his girlfriend Emily, portrayed by Kathryn Aselton. They head off on a van trip from Brooklyn to Georgia to pick up en route a chair that Josh bought on eBay and deliver it as a gift to Josh’s father on the occasion of his birthday.
There’s an immediate complication when Josh’s hapless brother Rhett, played by Rhett Wilkins, gets into the act as their travel companion. Along the way there is a thoroughly unbelievable situation when Rhett picks up a woman named Amber (Julie Fischer) and they hit it off and quickly decide to marry.
The most amusing—for us—moment involves seeing the chair. It is a wreck unlike the way it looked in the photo, and rapid upholstery is what’s required. (Beware of what you buy on the internet.)
The film itself could use some reupholstering. There’s a certain charm that arises from the good intentions of all concerned and the independent-feature ambiance that comes with it. Will Josh and Emily work out their commitment problems? Should they? Will the brothers work out their difficulties? Can the chair be fixed in time? Will dad like it?
The problem is there is not much reason to care. A Roadside Attractions and Netflix release.
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