Admission

Dir: Paul Weitz

2013

****

A romantic comedy drama about a forty-something women who has lost focus of her own identity, is left by her long-term partner (who literally treats her like a dog), has to deal with her militant feminist mother and who thinks she may have found her long lost son whom she put up for adoption seventeen years ago does not sound like my kind of film in the slightest. Directed by Paul Weitz, the writer of hit films such as Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and director of the masterpiece that is Little Fockers. I have only seen Ghostbusters around forty-eight times. Why the hell would I want to watch this load of rubbish instead of watching Ghostbusters for the forty-ninth time? Well, because it's a lot better than it sounds. Obviously. Tina Fey is far from the two dimensional character that I thought she would be, I didn't really get her mother's character that much but it was actually quite subtle and I love Lily Tomlin and I'm pretty sure she can do no wrong. Paul Rudd, in a rom-com? He's got at what he does, he's versatile and he does what he does best in this film. It could be described as predictable for sure but it's never overdone and actually quite subtle which works really well. It was silly in places but always believable and generally quite funny. The conclusion is very clever and beautifully executed. There is a certain poetry about the idea, a mix of not quite irony and not quite fate. Horrible on paper but actually rather pleasant on film. A happy surprise.