Admission
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
March 18, 2017 – Admission
Why, oh why don’t I consult doesthedogdie.com more often? I sat down to watch a movie with my wife Karen and we picked Fruitvale Station. After loving Creed like I did, I was anxious to see what put Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan on the map. Well, about halfway through the first act, a dog warms up to Jordan’s character, the dog is a stray and they seem to be getting along. WHAM – dog gets hit by a car. So…that was enough Fruitvale Station for Karen. Quickly, we switched over to Tina Fey and Paul Rudd trying to out-cute each other in Admission.
Admission delves deep into the world of college admissions – a world I never knew existed. Well, I know kids get admitted into colleges, I just didn’t know people had life theories about it, routines and hierarchies and fierce battles for position among the admissions staff. It may not be a thing, but it’s a thing in this movie. It seems odd to throw this critique at Admission, ‘cause it previously was thrown at action movies, but here’s another film that seems to really be in a hurry. Scenes happen quickly so we can get on to the next one, and when the story is as easy to relate to as this one is (it’s no Primer), I wish the film relaxed more into itself. Also, romantic comedies are so hard to come by, living in one at a comfortable pace would be nice. But this film flies from one scene to the next at the expense of the scenes having any impact.
Tina Fey is Princeton admissions officer Portia, who is contacted by Paul Rudd’s John, the head of an alternative-learning school about a young man he thinks would be great for Princeton and, oh yeah, he might be Portia’s son. Now I know there are plenty of guys out there who may or may not know if they have a son, but a woman would know, right? Fear not, that’s explained, and it leads into a fairly decent plot with some turns and surprises, but there is simply not enough funny. With Rudd and Fey, you’ve got some of the finest deliverers of funny you could want, but the material they’re given is just missing that comic jolt. The drama may be enough to keep you around, but I certainly wanted more.
One more aspect of Admission that is worth mentioning – Lily Tomlin is pretty entertaining in it! She’s been tainted by that I Heart Huckabees on-set rant in my book. I see nothing but her disdain for being in a project most times I see her in a film or on stage, but that’s mostly removed here and she seems to be having a good time. That’s good to see.
Directed by: Paul Weitz
Release Date: March 22, 2013
Run Time: 107 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: PG-13
Distributor: Focus Features
