title: The Discoverers (film)
text: # The Discoverers (film)
  
  The Discoverers is a 2012 American dark comedy directed and written by Justin Schwarz. The film stars Griffin Dunne, Madeleine Martin, and Cara Buono.
  
  ## Plot
  
  Washed-up history professor Lewis Birch (Oscar and Emmy nominated Griffin Dunne) takes his begrudging teenage kids – Zoe (Madeleine Martin, “Californication”) and Jack (Devon Graye, “American Horror Stories”) – on a road trip to a conference in hopes of putting his career back on track. But, when Lewis’s estranged father Stanley (Emmy Award-winning Stuart Margolin) goes AWOL on a Lewis and Clark historical reenactment trek, Lewis is forced to make a family detour. The Birch family find themselves on a journey of discovery and connection as they make their own passage west.
  
  ## Cast
  
  * Griffin Dunne as Lewis Birch
  * Madeleine Martin as Zoe
  * Cara Buono as Nell
  * John C. McGinley as Bill Birch
  * Stuart Margolin as Stanley Birch
  * Devon Graye as Jack
  * Ann Dowd as Patti
  * Dreama Walker as Abigail Marshall
  
  ## Reception
  
  The film was a New York Times Critic's Pick. As of June 2020, the film holds an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 26 reviews with an average rating of 6.24 out of 10. The website's critics consensus reads: "The Discoverers is occasionally guilty of contrived silliness, but its humor and genuine warmth are more than enough to compensate for its modest shortcomings."
  
  