The Daytrippers is a 1996 independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Greg Mottola in his feature directorial debut.

It stars Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, Anne Meara, Parker Posey and Liev Schreiber.

[1] In the morning after Thanksgiving, Eliza (Hope Davis) discovers a love letter featuring a poem that suggests that her husband Louis (Stanley Tucci) is having an affair with a woman named Sandy.

Her family, including her parents Jim (Pat McNamara) and Rita (Anne Meara), her sister Jo (Parker Posey), and Jo's live-in boyfriend Carl (Liev Schreiber), go along for the ride in the family station wagon from Long Island.

Eliza goes to find his boss and while waiting, she runs into Eddie Masler (Campbell Scott), a writer who tells her that the poem featured in the letter is called "The Definition of Love".

[4] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a grade B and compared to the film to David O. Russell's Flirting With Disaster but praised director Mottola as having "a lighter, warmer touch" and that he "keeps the action flowing and gets lively work" from the cast.

[5][6][7] On March 28, 1997, Desson Howe of The Washington Post remarked that "The Daytrippers proves that a great movie isn’t a matter of dollars, so much as creativity.

"[8] In April 1997, Robin Dougherty of Salon also gave it a positive review, calling it "well-crafted", and commenting that "despite the bite independent films took of last year's Oscar field, our movie industry — and our movie-going habits — aren't really supportive of writer-directors whose scope is that of a short-story teller rather than an epic mythmaker.

"[9] Janet Maslin of The New York Times commented that "the main action of The Daytrippers is bright, real and even poignant enough to make this journey worth the ride."

"[10] A negative review at the time came from Siskel and Ebert, who gave the film two thumbs down on the March 8, 1997 episode of their program.