Admission (2013) - Review

I often have these actors that I just can't resist.  Call it a mancrush or whatever you like, but hey, I won't deny that I find Paul Rudd absolutely charming!  Though he gets leading man roles pretty regularly, I notice that he very rarely gets the credit for his movies' successes.  All of I Love You Man's credit went to Jason Segel, Dinner for Schmucks went to Steve Carrell, and sadly I think everyone was too surprised by Our Idiot Brother not being a comedy to appreciate his stellar performance.

Point is: Rudd gets shafted a lot, even when he's the anchor to a lot of movies.  The average moviegoing audience tends to remember the over-the-top sidekick-y character, but I personally have a fondness for the "straight man", as it were.  And yes, Michael Bluth IS one of the best Bluths.  And while Tina Fey gets a little more credit, she often fills the same straight woman role--the sarcastically endearing 'sane' one.

So really, the two are perfect opposite each other.  Both are immensely likable, and as this movie shows, they have a pretty solid chemistry as well.  If only this ordinary rom-dram-com had a good script.  The awkward comedy scenes work well enough; both leads are unmatched at taking a bland-on-paper moment and turning it into something genuinely laughworthy.  But the movie just isn't very interesting in premise or execution.  Granted, they may indeed be the book's fault from which the idea is taken, but I digress.

There's nothing wrong with it, per se, it's just kind of... there.  There are some amusing moments and a couple of cringeworthy moments and ultimately it just kind of craps out from a lack of ideas.  It's not something I'll probably ever watch again, but if you accidentally rent it at Redbox while searching for the Justin Long classic, Acceptance, then go ahead and watch it.  At least this one doesn't have Lewis Black.