By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
Review: She’s Out of My League
Directed by Jim Field Smith
In the surprisingly likable rom-com She’s Out of My League, solid “#5” Kirk (Jay Baruchel) meets hot-to-trot “#10” Molly (Alice Eve), and spends most of the film struggling with both the self-esteem issues that keep getting in the way of their budding relationship and the advice he’s being given by his pack of doltish but well-meaning friends, who keep trying to convince him there’s no way a girl like Molly would be interested in a guy like him.
Director Jim Field Smith is obviously paying homage here to Judd Apatow‘s films; She’s Out of My League resembles both Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin, but it also reminded me of another film: Delbert Mann‘s 1955 Marty; where Marty’s friends berated him for dating a “dog,” in She’s Out of My League Kirk’s friends spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince him Molly is not for him because she’s too hot, presumably because they don’t want to see him hurt, but also, perhaps, because they’re a bit jealous that Kirk might actually land a girl like her.
I kind of wondered for a while there if writers Sean Anders and John Morris were being deliberate in referencing Marty, but as they also penned the upcoming Hot Tub Time Machine, I’m guessing if anything, they were more deliberately referencing Apatow. Guys bantering about sex, women, and the perils of pre-ejaculation? Check. Lovable, nice hero for whom we can root to get the girl? Check. Girl way hotter than the guy is, or at least perceives himself to be? Check.
And yet, in spite of the obviousness of the references and a couple of questionable moments, I quite likedShe’s Out of My League; certainly I liked it way more than I expected based on the trailer, which makes it appear to be yet another must-miss banal rom-com. This film is aiming to be more than that, even in the moments when it doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Part of what helps She’s Out of My League rise above the watermark most rom-coms hit is the charming and very likable lead performance by Jay Baruchel as Kirk, who somewhat reminds me of Jon Cryer‘s memorable Ducky from Pretty in Pink; Baruchel has been in quite a few films, but up until now he’s always been “that guy,” as in, “oh yeah, that guy, I’ve seen him in other movies, but I can never remember his name …” Here, his goofy, self-deprecating demeanor and struggle to accept himself as “good enough” for Molly have to carry the film; we have to believe, even if Kirk doesn’t, that he is good enough for Molly — and for the most part, the film succeeds in making that sale.
The film is also buoyed enormously by the presence of Alice Eve as Molly. Eve has been in a few films, but this is a big break-out role for her, and she positively sparkles on screen. She’s gorgeous, yes, but unlike some other physically attractive actresses out there who don’t bring much more than T&A to their part, Eve radiates intelligence, humor, and even humility. She has great chemistry with Baruchel that helps significantly in helping us buy that a girl like Molly would go out with a guy like Kirk (it helps also that Kirk, unlike most of the guys in Apatow’s films, is not a pot-smoking, lazy slob with a beer gut, but just an average guy who feels insecure about his physically studliness factor).
More than that, though, Eve brings out the vulnerability and self-esteem issues that even a girl who’s a solid “#10” has, and makes her stunningly beautiful, smart character likable even to the women in the audience. Molly, for all that she seems to have it all, is insecure, lonely, and looking for love, just like a lot of us, and just like a lot of the women who will see this movie, she’s been burned by relationships with “hot guys” and is seeking a guy who’s more real, more honest and, yes, more safe.
This is part of what makes this film work so well as a date movie, or even a movie for a chick to go see with a group of girlfriends; we women can be insecure and bitchy, and one sure-fire way to make us dislike a character is to make her an attractive woman with no perceivable defects or vulnerabilities. Molly, though, is a nice girl who happens to be gorgeous, and we can get behind and root for her.
Sex and the City, by the bye, worked for much the same reason — the female leads of that show, for all that they endlessly obsessed on fashion and men, all had flaws and foibles and relationship troubles that made them feel real and human. Is it coincidence that Eve’s next film is Sex and the City 2? I rather think not, and having seen her in this, I’m actually motivated more to see that film, just to see what the do with her in it.
As for She’s Out of My League, overall the film is much, much better than you might expect from the trailer, which does a spectacularly crappy job of selling the heart of the story. Kirk’s family — lazy, bullying brother Dylan (Kyle Bornheimer) and his trashy pregnant girlfriend Debbie (Jessica St. Clair) and Kirk’s parents (Debra Jo Rupp and Adam LeFevre), who have more or less adopted Kirk’s ex, the repugnant (but also vulnerable) Marnie (Lindsay Sloane) and her new boyfriend, the more studly Ron (Hayes MacArthur) into the family, supplanting their own son, are all, as a group, one of the most repugnant on-screen families you’ve ever seen.
The scenes with Kirk’s family are universally a bit over-the-top and hard sell; they treat him so badly, are just such a nasty bunch, that it’s a bit hard to believe that Kirk would bring Molly into this nest of vipers early on in their relationship. Kirk’s friends, Stainer (T.J. Miller), Jack (Mike Vogel) and Devon (Nate Torrance), the one married guy in the group, pretty much follow the buddy formula so well-established by any number of rom-coms, including Apatow’s: they banter, they make dick jokes, and they give their friend frequently bad advice on his relationship which he, to his detriment, takes to heart.
She’s Out of My League isn’t a “#10,” but I’d give it at least a “6” or “7” for a generally smart script and for playing around with how both Kirk and Molly, different though they may be on the surface, are, like a lot of us, scared and vulnerable and insecure as they flounder about and find their way in the rocky world of relationships. It also gets points from me for daring to venture a bit beyond rom-com cliche, and for making the effort to be a little smarter, sharper and more insightful than films of this genre tend to be.
If it had an all-star cast, it might have gotten more attention, but I don’t think it would have been a better movie. I laughed, a lot, and didn’t leave feeling I’d wasted the money spent on my ticket. At the multiplex these days, that alone is enough to recommend it.
