Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: Admission

Friday, March 22, 2013

Admission - Review

Admission
(2013 - March 22)
Comedy
1 hr. 57 min.

Rated: PG-13 Language and some sexual material Read more
Grade: C-

Director: Paul Weitz
Writers: Karen Croner (screenplay), Jean Hanff Korelitz (novel)
Stars: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Nat Wolff | See full cast and crew

Tina Fey (Date Night, 30 Rock) and Paul Rudd (I Love You Man, Knocked Up) star in Admission, the new film directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz (About a Boy), about the surprising detours we encounter on the road to happiness. Straight-laced Princeton University admissions officer Portia Nathan (Fey) is caught off-guard when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by her former college classmate, the free-wheeling John Pressman (Rudd). Pressman has surmised that Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), his gifted yet very unconventional student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption many years ago. Soon, Portia finds herself bending the rules for Jeremiah, putting at risk the life she thought she always wanted--but in the process finding her way to a surprising and exhilarating life and romance she never dreamed of having.

Here we go again, another film that has promise but fails to deliver. Yes, Portia (Tina Fey) is very attractive but that's about it. For all the hype of how funny Miss Fey is she fails to deliver in Admission, at the very best hit and miss. There is no believable chemistry between Portia and John Pressman (Paul Rudd). Now Mr. Rudd is nowhere as handsome as Miss Fey is pretty but he is far and away more genuine and sympathetic.

The supporting characters are paper thin and humorless stereotypes. The two boys, Jeremiah (Nat Wolff) and Nelson (Travaris Spears) John's adopted son from Uganda, turn in performances as strong as any of the adults. If you were looking forward to a triumphant comedic return to the screen by Lily Tomlin, you're out of luck, she is acerbic, foul mouthed and decidedly unfunny. Everyone, save the kids, gets to use profanity including some F bombs as per the current Hollywood norm.

Everyone seems to be uncaring, deceitful and self absorbed. Portia's bending the rules and falsifying admission records to help Jeremiah (Nat Wolf) get accepted to Princeton, the applicant whom she believes to be the baby she gave up for adoption. We are supposed to be sympathetic to her dishonesty since she has 'good intentions'.

Hopping into bed with someone you just met is portrayed as acceptable and normal and marriage is for losers and fools; wealthy white people are racist alcoholics; liberals are compassionate, mentally superior and liberated from any moral obligations; these are the values portrayed in this shallow screenplay. Rudd walks away from this lazy and very forgettable romantic comedy a bit less sullied than the others but that's not saying much.

There is absolutely no reason this film couldn't have been made without the foul language and cheap sexual innuendo. Some critics have said this is a great film for parents to see with their teens about to apply for college admissions. Why would you want to depress them by seeing a film that says admissions are so arbitrary, capricious or fixed. Nice way to depress them.

In all fairness and to be completely honest, there were a couple of chuckles present for myself and the two other people in the audience but one chuckle per hour does not a classic comedy make.