5/10
Would probably be one of the worst movies of 2013 if Kristen Wiig weren't so likable
26 January 2014
A movie whose script is so bad you have to wonder how it ever got made. It would easily be one of the worst movies that came out last year if not for the charming lead performance by Kristen Wiig. The performance isn't that much different from her work in Bridesmaids, but she was so good there I really didn't mind revisiting it. Wiig plays Imogene (which was the original name of the film), a failed playwright in New York City who has to move back in with her mother (Annette Bening) in Atlantic City after a failed suicide attempt. The trailer promised a funny movie about a messed up adult woman dealing with her nutjob mom, but Bening's character pretty much falls by the wayside. Again, one has to wonder why an actress of Bening's status signed onto this project. There's some stuff about Bening's new boyfriend (Matt Dillon), an eccentric man who claims to be a secret CIA agent. Most of the movie has Wiig falling for younger man Darren Criss. He's not bad, but the romance isn't that interesting. There's also Wiig's socially inept brother, Christopher Fitzgerald. This character is the movie's greatest failing. He's obsessed with hermit crabs and has built his own shell. The inane quirk comes in hard from left field, and any genuine emotions the film wants to have (there's a decent plot line about Wiig and Fitzgerald trying to find their long-lost father, Bob Balaban) are sabotaged. There are some amusing moments, and Wiig makes it mostly watchable, but it never builds to anything. The climax is based 100% on the film's worst, most quirky elements, and it's insanely dumb.
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