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Saturday, March 23, 2013
MOVIE REVIEW
Admission
Do Her A Favor, Open The Door, And Let Him
In
Tina Fey as Portia and Paul Rudd as
John in Paul Weitz's comedy-drama "Admission".
David Lee/Focus Features
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Saturday,
March 23,
2013
Paul Weitz's "Admission", a drama sprinkled with comedy, is full of surprising
moments and awkward ones, and it's a film that is as ill-fitting overall as some
of its specific episodes. The lack of congruity however, isn't entirely in
its structure, rather, it's appropriately in its whole point as a landscape
where all its characters are trying to find a place to belong, with rejection
looming in the near distance.
Portia (Tina Fey) has been recruiting students at Princeton University for 16
years, travelling far and wide to look for the ideal Princetonian. She
rivals a colleague (Gloria Reubens,
"Lincoln") in the drive to restore Princeton's
place as the number one recruitment school. Portia's long-time boyfriend
(Michael Sheen, in a far less subtle comic turn than in
"Midnight In
Paris") literally treats her like a Golden Retriever. On top of
that indignity an altogether different student with great potential is being
forged upon her as a Princeton candidate by John (Paul Rudd), a single parent of
an adopted child from Uganda (the whip-smart and lovable Travaris Spears.)
"Admission" intends to be serious. No sooner does the Focus Features logo
leave the screen than the film's white title card, in black background, appears.
The film, with early narration by Portia, unfolds more as a confessional laid
out by its lead figure, a psychological adventure and a visualization of what a
patient might tell her therapist in a session. There's no therapist in
"Admission", though. I loved that "Admission" did not have that
clichéd professional figure who tries to make things "right". What I liked
about this film is the freedom it has in allowing its people to find their own way and make
mistakes while depicting those errors both realistically and humorously, as well
as how people cope with the choices they make.
A lot of "Admission" is about seeking a home and
finding that piece in the human puzzle that fits, no matter how awkward it may
be to the "traditionalist" family model. The film flaunts a refreshing
incorrectness that is casual, real and not mean-spirited. Sometimes
"Admission" ventures to places you expect, and at other times it does not.
Many, if not all of the film's characters, are fleshed out beyond surface, and
there's sincerity to some of those who would otherwise solely be stereotypes or
background in many films. Comedy is never far from Mr. Weitz's film, and
if "Admission" could have been better it could have plunged even more into drama
without some of the gimmicks it displays.
The deck in "Admission" however, appears symmetrically and conveniently stacked,
as Mr. Weitz and screenwriter Karen Croner (based on Jean Hanff Korelitz's
novel) explore a world of fractured, incomplete people. What's impressive
about the film is its deft, careful and entirely real beats of comedy and drama,
albeit honed in a genuinely messy way. Life itself is like this.
There's rough edges and weight to "Admission" that distances it from other
mainstream films of its ilk. "Admission" really tries, and ultimately
succeeds, as a evolving portrait of today's American family.
Tina Fey, in her best big screen work to date, is great as Portia, a character
trying to find her place in the world as much as she is the applicants she
champions. The Paul Rudd we see here is the Paul Rudd of
"Our Idiot
Brother" and "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower", not of
"This Is 40"
or
"Wanderlust", and he's very good here, as is Lily Tomlin as Portia's
estranged mother, and Wallace Shawn as Princeton's dean of admissions.
Misunderstandings, miscommunications, impulsiveness and ambition are some of the
elements that create tension in everyday official human affairs let alone
relationships of all kinds. "Admission" captures this in evenly tragicomic
form, with part caricatured and part life-altering events. Sometimes the
resolution in life is that there is no resolution, and that coping with that
reality is the task (or the resolution itself!)
"Admission" approximates this, and gives a good effort, if not always a smooth
one, in that vein. It's rare these days that a Hollywood film, advertised
as a comedy but so clearly a drama, has such an earnest approach while being a
far from rounded film.
"Admission", which grapples with itself, offers food for thought and will, I
believe, provide something for everyone. Sometimes Mr. Weitz takes on too
much, and at other times he doesn't flesh things out as much as I think he
should have. Still, "Admission" is an admirable, entertaining and
enjoyable effort.
Also with: Nat Wolff, John Brodsky.
"Admission", which opened yesterday across the U.S. and Canada, is rated
PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America for
language and some sexual material.
The film's running time is one hour and 45 minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2013. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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