Dysfunctional-family comedies can be enduring classics you want to watch again and again, like "Home for the Holidays" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," or lowbrow fare good for a few laughs before erasing from memory, like "Meet the Fockers."

The star-stuffed "This Is Where I Leave You" falls somewhere in between. The audience-appeal strategy seems to have been: Throw a bunch of gags along with a can't-miss ensemble cast up on screen and hope at least a few stick. They do, even if the overall effect is loosey-goosey.

We begin with talk-radio producer Judd Altman (Jason Bateman), whose world comes crashing down when he discovers the crude shock jock (Dax Shepard) he works for in bed with his wife (Abigail Spencer), leaving both his marriage and career in the dust. Still reeling, Judd gets a call from his sister, power mom Wendy (Tina Fey), informing him their father has died. Arriving back home for the funeral, he encounters brothers Paul (Corey Stoll), a buttoned-down business type whose wife (Kathryn Hahn) is desperately trying to get pregnant, and Phillip (Adam Driver), the spoiled ne'er-do-well baby of the family, with a much-older girlfriend (Connie Britton) in tow.

Mother Hillary (Jane Fonda), whose new "bionic" breasts are the subject of repeated one-liners, announces that even though their late father wasn't much of a practicing Jew, his last wish was that his semi-estranged brood sit the seven days of shiva together — in the same spot, Wendy points out, where the family usually puts the Christmas tree. Years ago, Mom, a former child psychologist, wrote a tell-all book about her family, making them simultaneously wary of and exasperated with her.

Ranking performances, Fonda turns out to be the weakest link, her lines sometimes falling flat. Fey also slightly disappoints, if only because Wendy is so conventional. Bateman delivers his usual brand of laid-back drollery. As mischievous, conniving Phillip, Driver is the most fun to watch.

With everyone under one too-close-for-comfort roof, bickering, resentment-fueled high jinks, flirtations and revelations ensue. Judd reconnects with an old girlfriend (Rose Byrne, who does her best with a rather boring sidetrack story), and Wendy feels rekindled stirrings for her old beau Horry (Timothy Olyphant, in a surprisingly effective change of pace) from across the street, still living with his mother after suffering brain damage in an accident. By the time Mom drops a big old modern bomb of a surprise on the clan, so many stray threads are flying around that it barely makes you blink.

Considering that director Shawn Levy ("Night at the Museum") chose to cram all of the key players and subplots from Jonathan Tropper's bestselling book of the same name into a 100-minute film, he demonstrates good juggling skills. He wisely makes short work of poignant moments, swinging swiftly from one comedic arc to the next. Still, his short-attention-span approach could have been tempered with a bit more character development.

Don't judge "This Is Where I Leave You" by its trailer, which does it a huge disservice by cherry-picking easy, vulgar laughs, though there are plenty of those to choose from. It's better than that, even if it flits about too much to ever fully engage.

Kristin Tillotson • 612-673-7046