Trama

As inventor Andy Brewster is about to embark on the road trip of a lifetime, a quick stop at his mom's house turns into an unexpected cross-country voyage with her along for the ride.

Los Angeles based organic chemist Andrew Brewster has just sunk his life savings into developing and now marketing an environmentally friendly, effective and human safe home cleaning product. Despite these attributes, he is having problems making any sales to distributors and retailers. He has planned a cross country business trip via automobile to make sales pitches to various companies along the way, starting in New York City and ending in Las Vegas. While in New York, Andy plans to stay with his overbearing mother, New Jersey residing Joyce Brewster, with who he has a love/hate relationship and who he does not see very often anymore. He doesn't want to tell her of his sales failures thus far as he knows she will only add more than her two-cents into the matter, which he doesn't want. Joyce's focus of attention is on Andy's single status and what looks to be his stalled romantic life, out of which again he wants her to stay. Widowed when Andy was eight, Joyce has never remarried or dated for that matter, she not wanting to go through the trouble of a critical eye of another person in her life. Andy wishes she would make an effort with men both to make her happy and so that she will focus on her own life instead of his. When Joyce makes a revelation about her past love life to Andy just before he is ready to depart from New Jersey, Andy decides to invite Joyce along on the trip, making a final stop in San Francisco to revisit that past without telling her the reason. Joyce accepts. Through the ups and downs of their trip, Andy and Joyce may come to a better understanding of their relationship, Andy's business failures, and what is needed to move on with their lives as happy, productive people.—Huggo

Andy Brewster (Seth Rogen) is a UCLA-graduate organic chemist and inventor. He is attempting to get his environmentally friendly cleaning product, ScieoClean, in a major retail store. However, each retail store he visits dismisses him before he can end his pitch. After a disappointing sales pitch to K-Mart, he visits his mother, Joyce Brewster (Barbra Streisand), in New Jersey before leaving on a cross-country trip to Las Vegas, lying to her that his pitch ended well so she won't worry about him. While there she reveals to him that he was named after a boy she fell in love with in Florida named Andrew Margolis, whom she hoped would object to her marriage with Andy's father. However, he never did and she felt that she never mattered to him afterwards. After a little research, he finds Andrew Margolis is still alive and unmarried living in San Francisco. He invites his unknowing mother on the trip, claiming he wants to spend some time with her.

Andy Brewster lives in California and he is traveling the country trying to sell his organic cleaning product Scieo Clean. He makes a presentation to Kmart but the executives do not seem that interested. Andy goes home to New Jersey to visit his mother Joyce and claims he is doing well. Joyce thinks he left home to get away from her but Andy later says he went to UCLA because it had the best organic chemistry program.

Joyce doesn't want to go to a meeting of a singles group but Andy wants her to meet a man. Andy's father died when he was eight.

While they are still at Joyce's home, Joyce watches an old home movie.

Joyce tells Andy that he is named after Andrew Margolis, who she dated when they were in high school. But they went their separate ways and Joyce married Andy's father. No, Andrew Margolis was not Andy's biological father, even though Joyce dated both men at the same time.

Andy calls the company that Joyce said Andrew Margolis worked for. He finds out Andrew Margolis is still working for the company, but in the San Francisco office, and that he is single.

Andy asks his mother to travel with him. He has several meetings in Virginia, and others in Texas, Santa Fe, Vegas and finally San Francisco (what he doesn't admit is that the final meeting is with her former boyfriend). Joyce points out that Andy's ex Jessica is in Nashville, which is on the way. Andy doesn't want to stop and see Jessica, but things change.

When they rent a car, Andy wants an SUV in case of snow but Joyce persuades him to get a small cheap car.

Joyce brings along "Middlesex", a book on tape about someone who is neither male nor female. Andy finds it annoying and sometimes embarrassing because of the explicit descriptions of romance.

Joyce accompanies Andy to one of his meetings and gives him advice, but she is more annoying than anything else. And she won't put her purse on the dirty floor, but she has a device that attaches the purse to the table. Joyce waits outside, and Andy doesn't listen to the advice, his product is rejected, and Andy tells his mother things went well.

When they rent a hotel room, the clerk thinks Andy is getting lucky with an older woman. Andy insists on two rooms and Joyce says two rooms are too expensive, so they stay in one.

When they arrive in Tennessee, it looks like the weather will be bad. And it starts snowing. Andy realizes one of the tires may be flat. They stop at a strip club and ask how to get someone to fix the car. One of the dancers knows about cars and goes out to take a look. She finds that there was ice between the tire and the car and the tire is not flat. Since they need a place to stay until the storm passes, Joyce persuades Andy to call Jessica, who comes to pick them up. It turns out Jessica is married to Rob and pregnant, and they live in a nice house. Andy and Joyce have a nice visit where it is revealed Andy proposed to her, which Joyce did not realize. Soon Andy and Joyce are back on the road.

In Texas, Andy has a meeting with Costco. He finds out the person he is meeting with will come out to where he is waiting with his mother, so Joyce gets involved with the presentation. The Costco employee Ryan doesn't seem interested in Andy's product, especially after Joyce keeps pointing out problems with Andy's presentation and Andy gets mad. Ryan would like to know how to get what Joyce uses to hang her purse.

Andy and Joyce have an argument and Joyce goes to a bar. Joyce is having a good time when Andy tries to get her to leave. Andy gets a black eye from one of the men.

Andy and Joyce continue to travel across the desert and Joyce wants to see some attractions. And they have to eat so they stop in Lubbock at a place called Cattleman's Ranch. Andy finally reveals to his mother that he is a failure. After the waitress mentions a huge steak that few people succeed in eating, Joyce accepts the challenge. If she can eat a dinner that includes several pounds of steak in an hour, she eats free. If not, the dinner costs $100. With encouragement from Ben Graw, Joyce is successful. She leaves the restaurant wearing a t-shirt saying she ate that meal. Ben says he was just passing through but was so impressed with Joyce that he would like to spend more time with her. His business will include a trip to New Jersey. Joyce isn't that interested, but she does take his number.

Andy and Joyce stop at the Grand Canyon.

In Vegas, Andy and Joyce check in at a nice hotel. Joyce goes to the slot machines and wins enough to get her ears pierced. She already bought frog earrings.

The next day Andy makes his presentation with host Amy to Home Shopping Network, which is recorded. The executives are bored and Andy sees Joyce and is reminded of the advice she gave him. Andy asks Amy and the others about their families and reminds them how much safer his product is than other cleaning products. Joyce had suggested actually drinking it, which Andy does. The executives are very impressed.

Joyce wants to stay behind and have more fun in Vegas, but Andy has to confess that he has no meeting in San Francisco. In fact, the meeting is for his mom, with Andrew Margolis. This upsets Joyce but she agrees to go along.

Andy has found out where Andrew Margolis lives and he and Joyce go to the house. A young man answers the door and thinks they are trying to sell something he doesn't want. Andy asks the man about his father and the man says his father died but did run the company he works for now. His name is Andrew as well. Joyce is upset to learn that Andrew Margolis died but happy to see everything Andrew Jr. has to show him. However, Andrew Jr. says his father never mentioned Joyce and that his mother is in Florida. Then Andrew's sister walks in with the mail. Her name is Joyce. This makes Joyce Brewster very happy because it means Andrew never forgot her.

At the airport Andy and Joyce turn in the rental car after the narrator reads the ending of the book. Andy and Joyce go their separate ways. Andy sees as Joyce makes a call on her cell phone and thinks she can't wait five minutes to call her son, but the call is to Ben.