First time writer/director Greg Mottola deftly turns the limitations of low-budget filmmaking into an artistic advantage in this hit comedy: what better metaphor for the physical and emotional claustrophobia of family life than the dilapidated station wagon that serves as the film's main location? Hope Davis is a Long Island housewife who discovers a mysterious love letter written to her husband (Stanley Tucci) and heads to Manhattan to track him down. The rub: her contentious family -- dad (Pat McNamara), mom (Anne Meara), sister (Parker Posey) and sis's boyfriend (Liev Schreiber) -- come along for the ride. From this rather implausible premise, Mottola manages to spin a warm, funny, perceptive film that boasts great performances from everyone involved. Posey is at her bitchy best, and the understated Davis is touching as a woman whose marriage is poised to implode. The Daytrippers shifts from humor to poignancy with amazing ease, proving like all good road movies, that it's not the arrival at a destination that counts as much as the discoveries made along the way.