Muse Productions
Admission
Tagline: Let someone in
It seems hard to believe that Tina Fey and Paul Rudd have never appeared together on screen before. Shouldn’t two actors as cute and funny as Fey and Rudd be drawn towards working together, through some law of comedic gravity if nothing else?
In Admission, directed by Paul Weitz (About a Boy, In Good Company), we all get to find out if they do bring the funny. Fey plays Portia Nathan, an admissions officer at Princeton University, who evaluates thousands of applicants. But with the dean of admissions (Wallace Shawn) retiring, Portia has an opportunity to move up — until she meets up with her former college classmate John (Rudd) on a tour of high schools.
It doesn’t exactly sound as laugh-worthy as an episode of 30 Rock, and many critics don’t think Admission makes the grade. “Paul Weitz betrays an erratic grip on the comic tone, and the misguided central characters emerge, in the end, as less likeable than they ought to be,” notes the Hollywood Reporter. “Fey has the Sandra Bullock role — exactly the kind of part that she has spent the last decade transcending,” comments New York magazine. But Screen International is far happier, concluding that Fey’s “chemistry with Rudd is sharp, giving Admission many of its finest moments.”
TIME STYLE & DESIGN: Tina Fey Rocks On
NewsFeed’s Flicks Pick: One way or another, you’ll need an opinion on Spring Breakers, whereas you might not feel the same way about Admission.
