Admission (2013)
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Critics Consensus: Admission has a pair of immensely likable leads in Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, but it wastes them on a contrived (and clumsily directed) screenplay.
Critics Consensus: Admission has a pair of immensely likable leads in Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, but it wastes them on a contrived (and clumsily directed) screenplay.
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Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Paul Rudd (This is 40) are paired for the first time on-screen in Admission, the new comedy/drama directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz (About a Boy, In Good Company), about the surprising detours we encounter on the road to happiness. Every spring, high school seniors anxiously await letters of college admission that will affirm and encourage their potential. At Princeton University, admissions officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is a gatekeeper evaluating thousands … More- Rating:
- PG-13 (for language and some sexual material)
- Genre:
- Comedy
- Directed By:
- Paul Weitz
- Written By:
- Karen Croner
- In Theaters:
- Mar 22, 2013 Wide
- On DVD:
- Jul 9, 2013
- US Box Office:
- $18.0M
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Cast
-
Tina Fey
as Portia Nathan -
Paul Rudd
as John Pressman -
Nat Wolff
as Jeremiah -
Michael Sheen
as Mark -
Wallace Shawn
as Clarence -
Gloria Reuben
as Corinne
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Video Interview with Lily Tomlin from Admission
– Rotten Tomatoes
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Critic Reviews for Admission
All Critics (147) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (56) | Rotten (91) | DVD (1)
At the heart of the problem with this movie are matters of logic and cogency.
The many strands of this amiable yet overstuffed romantic comedy don't hang together, though each, on its own, has a modest charm.
What is most distressing about Admission is that it serves as further evidence that Tina Fey, despite her dominance of the small screen, has not yet mastered the big one.
This is certainly an interesting idea, though the movie is badly handicapped by Fey, who must venture beyond her usual snippiness into scenes of genuine poignancy and proves unequal to the task.
Granted, this is not automatic laugh-riot material, nor should it be, but didn't Fey recognize how hackneyed it all is?
If Fey ends up making movies as good as this one over the next few years, television's loss will have been cinema's gain, for real.
A romantic dramedy about a passionate erudite oddball woman with her own life? Hooray!
What's a romantic comedy to do when it is neither romantic nor comedic? When that film is Admission, it plunges forward drunkenly, hoping to overcome its inadequacies with goodwill created by the cast.
Overstays its welcome before petering out unremarkably.
An engaging cast holds our interest even when this rom-com meanders down unnecessary sideroads and dips into corny sentimentality.
Princeton must have thought this film could help its reputation. It's more likely to increase applications to Yale, Harvard and MIT.
Given two options, Admission routinely takes the less interesting of the two, and wastes a great deal of on-screen talent in the process.
Have you ever wondered how the admission procedure functions in Ivy League universities? No, me neither.
There are chuckles and moving moments, just not enough of them.
Intermittently sharp but often dully over-extended.
We generally expect more wacky humour from Fey and Rudd than this comedy, which is packed with perhaps too-smart dialog and a lot of warm sentiment.
Romantic and family complications ensue but nothing especially memorable or purposeful. Or funny.
It is ... perilously short on laughs, and the few that do come are generated by Lily Tomlin as the heroine's ferociously feminist mother.
Admission wants to win a place in our hearts, but after 108 minutes of relatively hard labour the majority of viewers probably won't let it in.
The comic material really isn't there, and the plot transitions feel forced and uncomfortable ...
The movie subverts expectations, and not in a good way, by seeming in a dither about its own identity.
This is comedy with zero pulse.
The tone is uneven, the central romance is unconvincing and it's disappointingly low on actual laughs.
The themes are important, even if in this Hollywood laundering they are sloshed about in love suds and clattered by uneven comedy spins.
A perfectly serviceable, star-led romance, Admission is also proof that some actors are just fun to watch in anything (which here extends to the supporting cast as well as the leads).
Audience Reviews for Admission
I always Paul Rudd's movies even though he's still somewhere to become an A-list Hollywood actor, at least he already have his name in the comedy industry.. Especially since he paired with one of the funniest actress nowadays -Tina Fey- the expectation got to be a little high.. But what I got in here is a decent rom-com movie with such a waste of talent of Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, even though their chemistry kinda lovely in here..
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Super Reviewer
Despite charming performances from the leads (and the always great Lily Tomlin) this falls pretty flat.
MoreSuper Reviewer
So glad I didn't buy this one. (Was tempted when I first saw it out. Comedy with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd. Would have to be worth a look, right? Hmmm. Not so much). Quite dull really. Drags along, not overly funny. Just meh. Okay to have on in the background, but bland story light on laughs.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Critics can take a hike! I really, really liked this! It was sweet, funny, touching, and an all around perfect movie for me. I love Paul Rudd, and I have a new found admiration for Tina Fey. I even liked Lily Tomlin's character. Not all comedies have to be roll-on-the-floor laughing comedies. Some, like this one, just make you do a lot of smiling. :)
MoreSuper Reviewer
Admission Quotes
- Portia Nathan:
- I kissed someone...almost on purpose!
- Portia Nathan:
- A 'B' in Physics? And you didn't take AP Chem.
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