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Admission (2013)

tomatometer

43

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Reviews Counted: 119
Fresh: 51 | Rotten: 68

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.

28

Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 28

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.

audience

44

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 18,332

My Rating

Movie Info

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

PG-13,

Comedy

$17.8M

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All Critics (119) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (68)

The many strands of this amiable yet overstuffed romantic comedy don't hang together, though each, on its own, has a modest charm.

April 1, 2013 Full Review Source: New Yorker
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: The Atlantic
The Atlantic
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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.

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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Granted, this is not automatic laugh-riot material, nor should it be, but didn't Fey recognize how hackneyed it all is?

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor
Christian Science Monitor
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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.

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: MSN Movies
MSN Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You'll be glad you enrolled.

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It isn't a world beater, but this gentle and heartwarming understated comedy had better not be Rudd and Fey's last as co-stars.

April 25, 2013 Full Review Source: Spectrum (St. George, Utah)
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

On entering adulthood.

April 11, 2013 Full Review Source: PopMatters
PopMatters

A running theme of parenthood, by nature or nurture, extends "Admission" beyond its broader comedy of mismatched-or missing-romantic partners, sight gags and punch lines.

April 3, 2013 Full Review Source: American Profile
American Profile

Fey's usual self-deprecating wit and charm only sporadically rise above the plot mechanics.

March 29, 2013 Full Review Source: Cinemalogue.com
Cinemalogue.com

Everywhere you see Tina Fey she is hilarious - except in this movie.

March 29, 2013 Full Review Source: jackiekcooper.com
jackiekcooper.com

Admission never gives its world-class players the opportunity to do anything but sit on the sidelines while the film goes in circles, trying to find a consistent tone without ever getting out of its own way.

March 28, 2013 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine
Paste Magazine

[T]he cards are stacked so heavily for the eventual winning side that Portia doesn't have to grow or change to switch sides; she just has to open her eyes.

March 28, 2013 Full Review Source: Christianity Today
Christianity Today

The script was adapted from a novel but I can't imagine the book (or the characters in it) being this un-interesting.

March 26, 2013 Full Review Source: MediaMikes
MediaMikes

So both Liz Lemon and Tina Fey got their wish. Except Liz's costs you nothing: the Grizz sitcom isn't real or asking for 100 minutes of your life. Fey's wish resulted in this movie, this dull, terrible, lifeless movie. The one where she talks to a cow.

March 25, 2013 Full Review Source: Movies.com
Movies.com

Career women, you will finds happiness by embracing your maternal instincts. Parents and high-school students, you are right to obsess over college. Tina Fey, continue your domestication process. These are among the depressing affirmations of 'Admission.'

March 25, 2013 Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

A comedy, but a serious comedy.

March 24, 2013 Full Review Source: Denton Record Chronicle (TX)
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

Fey and Rudd can't save college-bound comedy

March 24, 2013 Full Review Source: Movie Habit
Movie Habit

While the idea of teaming Fey and Rudd sounds like a feasible one, the reality is that all this low-simmer niceness results in a movie that has absolutely no wit, bite or -- most shockingly -- moments of hilarity.

March 23, 2013 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing

What it [arguably] lacks in passion, Admission makes up for nicely in heart with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd at their light dramatic best.

March 23, 2013 Full Review Source: We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered

A rather bland comedy that never rises above its sitcom premise.

March 23, 2013 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs
Three Movie Buffs

Fey is flawless as a stickler for rules, order, and over-rehearsed patter whose desperation to maintain an even keel at all times results in puckishly inappropriate behavior when things start to fall apart

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews
Killer Movie Reviews

A comedy that's not especially funny, and a satire of the college admissions culture that isn't especially incisive

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: EntertainmentTell
EntertainmentTell

Admission squanders its most interesting aspects, flattening them out into a tidy, dull narrative instead of running with their more outlandish aspects, or focusing deeper on the pain at the heart of the characters.

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Audience Reviews for Admission

The idea of a Fey/Rudd romcom plays better in your head than this film actually does, which is the real surprise here. Somehow they disregarded the magic the film should've revolved around - and so what's left are threads, decent threads, that don't connect. Unsatisfying. Liked seeing Tomlin again.
April 11, 2013
UniversalDreamer

Super Reviewer

Even though Tina Fey has a few witty lines, there is simply nothing here.
April 8, 2013
Markus Emilio Robinson
Markus Robinson

Super Reviewer

    1. Portia Nathan: A 'B' in Physics? And you didn't take AP Chem.
    – Submitted by Felicia S (39 days ago)

Discussion Forum

Topic Last Post Replies
I want to go to there. 42 days ago 6

Latest News on Admission

March 22, 2013:
Critics Consensus: The Croods is Charming and Funny
This week at the movies, we've got a stone-age family (The Croods, with voice work by Nicolas Cage...

March 21, 2013:
Video Interview with Lily Tomlin from Admission
Comedy legend Lily Tomlin plays the no-nonsense gun-toting mother of Tina Fey in Admission. Senior...

March 20, 2013:
Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, and Paul Weitz Talk Admission
Fey reveals which part of the original script made her say "Urk!"

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