Movies

ADMISSION (2013) *** Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Lily Tomlin, Gloria Reubens, Wallace Shawn, Michael Sheen, Nat Wolf, Travaris Spears, Sonya Walger, Olek Krupa. Funny and warm-hearted comedy of errors with Fey on top of her game as a Princeton admissions officer who finds herself in a moral quandary: a possible candidate for the esteemed university may be her long-lost son. Rudd is amiable and low-key fun as the director of a special school of higher education including the lad in question and has great chemistry with Fey too boot. Tomlin is a stitch as her crunchy granola feminist mom who steals the film. While director Paul Weitz mixes the screwball with the sentimental in fine spurts the screenplay by Karen Croner, based on Jean Hanff Korelitz' novel, cuts the corners a bit in the satire-rich atmosphere.

I love Tina Fey and Paul Rudd never gets old either (literally and metaphorically). The movie itself has quite a few flaws though. Never sure if it is a comedy or a drama. Walking that line was never going to be easy and it stumbles more than a few times. Tina and Paul do their best to keep it on tracks.The kid actors are pretty decent, but don't have much to go through in their arks. Of course the movie is about lost love and about family in general. But even those things are not mixed in the right mixture. There is either too much of something or too little of another thing. A shame that the talent and the massive effort on Tinas part does not really get the movie it would deserve.

Okay, like some reviewers here, I watched Admission expecting a comedy, the kind Tina Fey and Paul Rudd usually are associated with but unlike some of them, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was more of a drama than a rom-com. I also liked Lily Tomlin's performance as Ms. Fey's mother especially when she's initially on screen. Actually, Ms. Fey is quite hilarious whenever she emphasizes her sad emotions for her benefit like when she's talking to her colleague-and rival for the dean's job-about her emotions. There's quite a lot of good scenes of both humor and drama abounding here. Really, all I'll say now is that I very much enjoyed watching Admission and I wouldn't mind seeing it again some other time in the future.