Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winner Tina Fey (“Date Night,” TV's “30 Rock”) stars as the fiercely supportive but undeniably bossy big sister, Wendy, in Warner Bros.' dramatic comedy “This is Where I Leave You” from director Shawn Levy.

When their father passes away, four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide—driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.

“As the only girl in the family, Wendy has attempted to mother her two younger brothers, but she’s especially close to Judd,” says Tina Fey. “At first, she’s the only one who knows how Judd is living and that he’s left his wife and his job, and she’s a confidant to him even when he doesn’t want her as a confidant. She pulls the truth out of him like only an older sister can do, and they annoy each other in the way that only brothers and sisters can.”

Levy drew upon his relationship with his own sister in helping to develop the rapport between the two leads, saying, “I knew that the Wendy-and-Judd scenes would be the heart of the movie so we bolstered them and spent a lot of time focused on them in the writing and the performances. Tina Fey and Jason Bateman, who didn’t know each other prior to production, created a wonderfully intimate bond that is so authentic on screen.

“Tina brings all her sharpness and biting wit into play, but where Wendy’s story is also touched with pain she had to convey that sadness and vulnerability too,” Levy continues. “She took that leap and she absolutely soars.”

Tough as nails when she has to be—don’t cross her or anyone she loves—Wendy is the wise, warm, big sister with the awesome left hook. “She’s married to a workaholic,” offers Fey. “On paper, he’s everything she would be into: smart, successful, handsome…but he’s also a bit of a tool, like rolling calls at her father’s funeral. They have two young children so they’re also dealing with the stress and strain of that, but you get the feeling that maybe they weren’t the greatest couple even before that.”

All of this is thrown into perspective when Wendy comes home and catches sight of Horry Callen, the boy she left behind.

Timothy Olyphant stars as the strong yet touchingly fragile Horry, whose setbacks have not dampened his sense of humor so much as lent it a certain philosophic edge. “Horry and Wendy were in love,” Olyphant explains. “They were high school sweethearts and it was a lovely thing, but then a tragic accident happened and Horry became incapable of having the kind of life and relationship Wendy would have wanted—and that he wanted for her. So she got on with life and married someone else. But when she comes home and sees him, it’s an opportunity for a time out. It’s as if that relationship and that love still exists for both of them in some kind of timeless bubble.”

To be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide starting Dec. 17, “This is Where I Leave You” is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.

From director Shawn Levy (“Real Steel”) comes the dramatic comedy “This is Where I Leave You” based on the hilarious and poignant best-selling novel by Jonathan Tropper.

It features a starring ensemble cast, including Golden Globe-winner Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development”); Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Tina Fey (“30 Rock”); and two-time Oscar winner, multiple Golden Globe honoree and Emmy Award nominee Jane Fonda (“Coming Home,” HBO’s “The Newsroom”).

When their father passes away, four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide—driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.

The film also stars Adam Driver (“Girls”), Rose Byrne (“Bridesmaids”), Corey Stoll (“Midnight in Paris”), Kathryn Hahn (“Parks and Recreation”), Connie Britton (“Nashville”), Timothy Olyphant (“Justified”), Dax Shepard (“Parenthood”), Debra Monk (“Damages”), Abigail Spencer (“Rectify”), and Ben Schwartz (“House of Lies”).

Filmmaker Shawn Levy’s response to This is Where I Leave You was heartfelt and immediate. “I loved it,” Levy recalls of his first time reading Jonathan Tropper’s richly entertaining, best-selling novel about love, loss, family, growing up, and getting on with the business of life. “It resonated for me in ways that were both comedic and deeply moving. There was something in its blend of humanity, warmth and humor that rang true, and I knew it was a movie I wanted to make, a story I wanted to share.”

It may seem like something of a departure for Levy, best known by moviegoers around the world for the blockbuster “Night at the Museum” films. “At the time, I was doing bigger, broader comedy, whereas this is more character-based and nuanced in its detail, so it had to be drawn with a finer brush,” he says.

“This is Where I Leave You” finds Levy still very much in the business of making people laugh, but this time those laughs spring from a more intimate place, as the film holds up a mirror to the kinds of emotional entanglements, conflicts and secrets, pitfalls, pratfalls and second chances in life that we can all relate to, as the ties that bind often tie us up in knots. “It’s a grounded, honest story about human behavior and connections that I think is as comfortable being funny as it is being poignant,” he adds.

The producers hired Tropper to write the screenplay for “This is Where I Leave You,” marking the first time the author has adapted his own work for the screen.

Says Tropper, “Working with Shawn and the producers, seeing other people get invested in these characters in a different way, and then seeing the actors make them their own; it’s been an exciting process.”

For those who loved the story and will be rediscovering it on the big screen, he adds, “I’ve always been a big movie fan and I look at movies as a very different animal, so it wasn’t really hard to take apart the book and find the movie inside of it. It’s the same message and the same story. The hardest part was finding the balance between what people would find fun and entertaining and, at the same time, wanting them to be touched by its underlying themes.”

Throughout, Tropper worked closely with Levy, who felt, “It was my job to honor the novel. Much of my process was reminding Jonathan of the beauty of his prose and importing ideas, or lines, or whole scenes from the novel.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever followed my gut as faithfully as I did in the pursuit of this book, and this story, and really in every decision I made during the making of this movie,” the director continues. “The reason I wanted to make it was because it’s so inspirational and warm-hearted and redeeming in ways that I like movies to be.”

Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 12, 2014, “This is Where I Leave You” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.