Girl Most Likely

Kristen Wiig, Darren Criss, Matt Dillon, Annette Bening
Girl Most Likely had a dismal 18% on Rotten Tomatoes when I attended a screening of it, and as of this writing is down to 13%, so I wasn't expecting it to be a fantastic movie. That being said, it took a while to get rolling but had a surprising amount of hilarious one-liners, and it was fun to see Darren Criss (of Glee fame, and a UM '09 alum like myself) up on the big screen.

Imogene (Kristen Wiig) is devastated when her boyfriend, Peter (Brian Petsos), tells her he's going to move out of their NYC apartment. She fakes a suicide situation (note and pills spread out on the bed) and calls him, and he agrees to come over. Her friend Dara (June Diane Raphael), however, finds Imogene instead, and brings her to the hospital, where they want to release her into 72-hour care. They call the person she least wants to see: her mother, Zelda (Annette Bening), who lives in Ocean City, New Jersey, and whom Imogene hasn't seen in years. She reluctantly goes "home" with her only to find that home is not the place she left it: her mom has rented out her room to a mid-20s musician, Lee (Darren Criss), and is currently shacking up with "George Bouche" (Matt Dillon), who claims he works for the CIA. Imogene needs to get her life together before Zelda's big book party, though, and she finds help from the most unusual sources in doing this.

This was Darren Criss's first (major) screen debut, and he was charming as Lee, the 20-something renter who works in a '90s revival show at the casino that Wiig's mom frequents - he got to showcase some of his singing chops here as well. Wiig played the type of character she always seems to play: the quirky, sometimes down-on-her-luck woman that she also played in Bridesmaids, but she does well here. I also liked Annette Bening and Matt Dillon, as Wiig's mom and her mom's boyfriend, and there's a twist involving Dillon's character at the end that surprised me a bit. Christopher Fitzgerald was also very good as Ralph, Imogene's nerdy inventor brother who still lives at home and who recently opened a shop on the Ocean City boardwalk.

Maybe see this movie. The second half of it really takes off and is much better than the first, but it's a long hour or so until then. Much like Imogene herself, it can't really decide what type of film it wants to be; it often introduces storylines, forgets about them, and comes back to them 30-40 minutes later (by which time, the audience has forgotten about them as well). I can't not recommend this movie, however, because some of the situations and one-liners were way too funny; there's a scene were (the formerly always-sober) Imogene is gulping down some wine, and someone asks how long she's been an alcoholic - her brother then answers, "2 days." I also thought Wiig and Criss had chemistry, although I didn't like her character at first, and by the end of the movie I found myself rooting for them as a couple, which is always a good sign. I would recommend Girl Most Likely, but for a matinee or DVD rental at some point; it's not worth paying full price for, but it definitely has its moments.

Girl Most Likely is in theaters today, July 19th, and is rated PG-13 with a runtime of 103 minutes. 3 stars out of 5.

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