Christina Applegate has signed on for what may be the only comedic road trip even darker than the one she’s taking with Ed Helms in Vacation. The Anchorman star is set to appear in Youth In Oregon, in which she’ll play the wife of a man who’s driving his father-in-law to the titular state for an assisted suicide.
Frank Langella will play the older man, who’s been described in various casting notices as “cantankerous” and who requested the one-way trip. Billy Crudup, meanwhile, will play Applegate’s husband, who attempts to talk his father-in-law out of his decision. Will the movie end with the two men realizing they have more in common than they thought, with Crudup smiling ruefully at the cranky old coot as he slips away into death? It’s unclear at this time.
Meanwhile, Applegate will play Kate, the responsible “linchpin” of the family. And while it’s a shame to see Applegate get trapped in the old “hot wife, dopey husband, suicidal father” comedy paradigm, we can only hope she’ll be able to get a few good zingers in at the expense of her wacky old dad, before he attempts to escape this vale of tears with the last of his remaining dignity.