Review of Admission (2013) by Panta O — 28 Jul 2013

I love watching good romantic comedies with the right company, and when I saw this movie directed by Paul Weitz and starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, I thought - this must be funny! But the story of the straight-laced Princeton University admissions officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) wasn't funny or romantic. Even when there was an opportunity to make it funny or romantic, for example when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by her former college classmate, the free-wheeling John Pressman (Paul Rudd), the director misses it. I am not sure who to blame, him or the screenplay written by Karen Croner which was trying to be smart and unevenly developed. The director knows how to do it (About a Boy), but in this film based on the novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, he tries to play safe and safety slowly disintegrated everything into nothing. It tried to have some kind of authenticity, it was partially shot on the Princeton University campus (whilst many of the film scenes were shot at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York)... but the lack of real substance was too obvious for anyone to be drawn in.

Just another movie to be seen and quickly forgotten.