Why does Hollywood insist on advertising dramas as being comedies? This is false advertising. How do they get away with that?
Spoiler Alert: Tina Fey plays an admissions officer at prestigious Princeton University. She has held that job for 16 years. Apparently it is the second toughest school to get into in the Country. Applicants will do practically anything to get into that school and Fey and her co-workers are charged with selecting the very few who get the privilege of attending that school. Given that situation, you would think that Fey's character would be wise to watch out for a scam.
Paul Rudd plays a guidance counselor from a new age high school who has discovered a vulnerability of Fey: when she was young she had gotten pregnant and gave birth to a boy and gave him up for adoption. Rudd convinces Fey that the boy is actually her son and that she should bend and then ultimately break the rules. After she sacrifices everything she worked for for 16 years, she finds out that Rudd had lied, the boy was not her son after all. (This is a comedy?)
(Note I can identify with this. MY mother secretly gave birth to a son and gave him up for adoption. Then when she was 70, she was confronted by her long lost son. I broke the tension by telling her, "Now that I have a new brother, can she work on a little sister?")
Anyway, what saves the movie is Fey's acting. Oh sure you knew she could do comedy from SNL, 30 Rock and her earlier films, but I thought she was awesome in a dramatic role. When she makes a pitch for her son to be admitted to Princeton, I got choked up. She will likely forgotten by the time the Oscar nominations are handed out next year, but a very impressive performance.
Spoiler Alert: Tina Fey plays an admissions officer at prestigious Princeton University. She has held that job for 16 years. Apparently it is the second toughest school to get into in the Country. Applicants will do practically anything to get into that school and Fey and her co-workers are charged with selecting the very few who get the privilege of attending that school. Given that situation, you would think that Fey's character would be wise to watch out for a scam.
Paul Rudd plays a guidance counselor from a new age high school who has discovered a vulnerability of Fey: when she was young she had gotten pregnant and gave birth to a boy and gave him up for adoption. Rudd convinces Fey that the boy is actually her son and that she should bend and then ultimately break the rules. After she sacrifices everything she worked for for 16 years, she finds out that Rudd had lied, the boy was not her son after all. (This is a comedy?)
(Note I can identify with this. MY mother secretly gave birth to a son and gave him up for adoption. Then when she was 70, she was confronted by her long lost son. I broke the tension by telling her, "Now that I have a new brother, can she work on a little sister?")
Anyway, what saves the movie is Fey's acting. Oh sure you knew she could do comedy from SNL, 30 Rock and her earlier films, but I thought she was awesome in a dramatic role. When she makes a pitch for her son to be admitted to Princeton, I got choked up. She will likely forgotten by the time the Oscar nominations are handed out next year, but a very impressive performance.