Admission (2013)
The title is built around a pun which is the turning point of the movie—an admission, or at least a revelation, about a long lost child. The leading woman is the wonderful Tina Fey who I wish I could say was wonderful here. She plays an admissions official at Princeton, and lots of Ivy League clichés and would-be jokes parade by.
And that's the overview—a pre-packaged kind of routine film, not very imaginative to start with and never pushed or pulled the way a comedy, or a romance—or both!—ought to be.
Fey, it seems, wants to be a serious romantic leading actress, and she's chipper and cute and she could, with a much better script, pull off a kind of sympathetic Meg Ryan type. That's at least what I smell here. Her romantic partner, the sometimes very funny Paul Rudd, is again weighted down by having little to really make funny.
I'm not sure how a director like Paul Weitz keeps getting work. He has a whole series of disappointing movies, even a hand-me-down like "The Little Fokkers," and I'm sure some have made some money, but they would have been better (and made even more money) in better hands. The proof is in all this pudding.
On the surface you might think there are funny paths to take in "Admission," and maybe even some hilarious pratfalls (Fey's mom is more happily over the top and has some moments), but it's just a mildly enjoyable fizzle all the way. You won't walk away angry, just a little flat.
