Family tensions are high in The Oranges, a delightfully funny comedy featuring the likes of Hugh Laurie, Leighton Meester, Adam Brody, Catherine Keener, and Allison Janney. With a tight screenplay and a refreshing final act, there is a lot to like here, despite its inability to be as consistent as one would hope.

Written by Jay Reiss and Ian Helfer, The Oranges sat in second place on the 2008 Black List, an industry list of the best un-produced screenplays. From that information alone, director Julian Farino has a lot to live up to with his feature debut. Thankfully, he largely delivers with an at times hilarious, at times touching take on trouble in suburbia.

The cast is quite fantastic, with Hugh Laurie and Oliver Plat playing patriarchs of two neighboring families who are seemingly the best of friends. When Nina (Meester) breaks up with her fiance Ethan (Sam Rosen), she returns home to New Jersey after a long absence. This event, while seemingly joyous, sets into motion a series of pitfalls in the relationship between these two families. It’s family drama at its most funny; no stone goes unturned, while the narrative avoids some common mistakes with such movies, while falling into others.

One mistake the film makes is in making Vanessa (Alia Shawkat), the daughter of David (Laurie), the film’s narrator. While she has many flat-out funny one-liners, I’m not sure her particular insight on the events of the film really adds much. Elsewhere, the inclusion of a potential relationship between Nina, the daughter of Terry and Cathy (Plat and Janney), and Toby (Adam Brody), the son of David and Paige (Laurie and Keener). While these examples hurt the film, the cast does wonders in making these examples work better than they should.

The best thing I can say about The Oranges is how natural everything feels. While the drama is far from commonplace, and the comedy truly is funny, it all feels natural to the narrative. A moment of anger from Paige during the final act perhaps withstanding, Farino guides the film with an impressive restraint, simply letting the cast and the terrific script do much of the work.

Filled with sharp acting and a funny, sharp screenplay, The Oranges thrives as an often hilarious take on family drama. With Hugh Laurie and Leighton Meester on down to Allison Janney and Catherine Keener, the cast is terrific and is able to overcome the film’s narrative and thematic pitfalls as what we’re left with is a mostly rewarding and refreshing take on family issues.

Grade: B

Rated: R (for language including sexual references and some drug use.)

The Oranges opens in theaters on October 5, 2012.