One of the current generation's gifted onscreen comedians, Ed Helms (“The Hangover” trilogy’s hapless dentist Stu) makes his leading man debut as family man Rusty Griswold in New Line Cinema’s outrageous comedy “Vacation.”
In the film, we meet Rusty—a pilot for budget airline Econo Air—just as it’s dawning on him that all is not well in his Chicago abode. “It becomes clear to him very early on in the film that he's completely mistaken about this fantasy that he has the perfect family,” director and screenwriter John Francis Daley explains. “In fact, the kids really don’t look up to him. They don't get along at all, and his wife is not as happy as she could be in their marriage.”
Unlike anyone who has ever seen the original “Vacation,” Rusty has only glowing memories of that long ago trip to Walley World and thinks his own family could a dose of family bonding. “Rusty sort of has a case of selective memory,” director and screenwriter Jonathan Goldstein elaborates. “He’s somehow blocked out all the terrible things that happened on that trip, and thinks that if he can replicate that, all will be well with the Griswold family.”