Admission Denied: Fey can’t carry comedy-romance
April 11, 2013
By Kevin Hyde
April 12, 2013
The transcript for the new comedy Admission, which follows an emotionally tumultuous series of events for a university admissions officer, is pretty strong. The film is adapted from a recent, popular novel. Its two stars—Tina Fey and Paul Rudd—are likable and intelligent. Its director, Paul Weitz, has navigated similar material (About A Boy in 2002) with success.
Sounds like a model student and a strong applicant, the kind of smart, mature comedy I want badly to be good. Unfortunately, it’s not Ivy League material. Although, I’m sure it could get into several, reputable state schools.
Based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Admission stars Fey as Princeton admissions officer Portia Nathan, whose seemingly contented, stable and child-free life quickly comes unraveled in the opening scenes when she is coaxed to a progressive high school run by Rudd’s character, John, who introduces her to his best student, Jeremiah (Nat Wolff). According to John, Jeremiah, who is applying to Princeton, is the son Portia gave up in a secret adoption 18 years ago, when she herself was in college.
When Portia returns from this illuminating trip, her long-time, live-in, poetry professor boyfriend (Michael Sheen), leaves her for the new Virginia Wolfe scholar, Helen, whom Mark has impregnated with twins. Not to mention, Portia is also up for a major promotion because the dean of admissions, Clarence, played by the excellent character actor Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, Inconceivable!), is retiring and will choose his successor from the current staff.
The movie boasts several memorable supporting performances. We meet Portia’s estranged mother, Susannah, played by the always enjoyable Lily Tomlin. This is not a good mother-daughter relationship. Susannah, who didn’t even tell Portia about her recent double mastectomy, is a hardcore, 1960s-era feminist who is palpably unimpressed with her daughter’s life and career paths. You could have been a trailblazer, she laments.
That’s the set up. And then the rest of this sometimes engaging, but mostly forgettable movie happens, as Portia warms to the idea of the quirky Jeremiah being her son, and goes to great lengths to try and get him into Princeton. There are funny moments that make you smile but not laugh. There are moments that are sweet, but I wouldn’t say heartwarming. You care about the characters enough, but you never feel terribly invested.
The romance that inevitably builds between the Fey and Rudd characters never seems quite genuine. The two create no sparks—no chemistry. You get the impression Rudd never knew his character, John, a world-traveling do-gooder raising his young, African son, Nelson, who is increasingly weary of their nomadic existence. With Fey, who is spectacles-free in this movie, I never felt like I was watching the character Portia Nathan. I was watching Tina Fey as Portia Nathan. From her days as head writer at Saturday Night Live to her popular work on 30 Rock, Fey’s strength has never been her acting chops. She is a good writer and observant humorist. She can be an appealing screen presence—pretty but not unrealistically Hollywood gorgeous—and she exudes intelligence (even without the glasses).
But she can’t carry a movie.
I was surprised Princeton lent its name and campus to Admission. The film paints a rather unbecoming picture of the admissions process at elite, American universities. The whole system would be called into question, says Clarence, the dean of admissions, at one point. We wouldn’t want that. That’s exactly what this movie is trying to do. But it pulls its punches. I wouldn’t call Admission a scathing indictment, but what it portrays is, well, disappointing and somewhat deflating. Maybe the folks at Princeton were smart enough to know that nobody would want to see Admission, which is tanking at the box office.
Admission is not a terrible movie. It’s not even a bad movie, really. I’m sure it will be in heavy rotation on TNT within the year.
Kevin Hyde is a freelance writer whohas worked as a reporter for daily and weekly newspapers, editedregional and national magazines, written on pop culture for aninternational newspaper as well as several local, alternativenewspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].
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