FILM REVIEW: ADMISSION

Getting Tina Fey to star in your movie is basically a casting trump card: No matter how bad the movie may be, it will be impossible for viewers to actively dislike it because the comedian is just so damn awesome. That's how we felt about Baby Mama, Date Night, and now Admission, her latest flick which arrives in theaters tomorrow. The film, based in part off of the book of the same name, follows Fey as Portia Nathan, an admissions officer at Princeton who is the gatekeeper to the Ivy League school; get past her and you get in. For once, she plays the straight guy (or, er, gal), high-strung and lacking any fun in her life.

Which, of course, can never last--if you've seen a rom-com in the past 20 years, you know that someone's going to teach her to loosen up a bit. That someone is John Pressman (played by Paul Rudd, another hard-to-hate trump card), who runs an alternative high school and is convinced that one of his students (played by Nat Wolff) is Portia's son. The rest of the movie spins out from there, with appearances by some of our favorite old-school funny people including Wallace Shawn (Mr. Hall!) and Lily Tomlin. Between Fey, Rudd, and director Paul Weitz, who was behind About a Boy, you'd expect perfection. But like many of Princeton's applicants, there's something missing here: passion.

Yes, you'll laugh, you'll smile, you'll even be surprised--there are a few plot twists thrown in right when you least expect them--and Tomlin practically steals the show as Portia's hippy mom, but no matter how much you want to love Fey and this movie, you might find yourself wanting to like it way more than you actual do. And we're pretty sure that won't get you admission to the Ivy Leagues.