JIM reviews film "SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE"

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She’s Out Of My League

MY Rating: of 10 stars (based on an advance screening of the approx. 90-minute film due to be released 3-12-10).

Cute Premise, periodically-OVERDONE Execution due to the Brotherhood of BOORS

Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel) works as a TSA employee at the airport in Pittsburgh. He’s tall, thin (almost to the point of looking emaciated), lacks self-confidence, and tends to act Ultra “WIMPY” with other people.

… While he looks & behaves like the Poster Boy for “LOSER”, his buddies at the airport have very different personalities: “Stainer” (T.J. Miller) is a loud-mouthed, foul-mouthed, amazingly BOORISH-acting TSA Security guy who moonlights in a Hall and Oates “cover” band on the “side”…

… Heavyset Devon (Nate Torrence) is the only married one in the group, but he’s usually in quasi-romantic flights of “fancy”, spouting lines from movie musicals and the like as he hopefully “longs” for other women to “want” him…

… Jack (Mike Vogel) is the handsome, “practical” one (who works as a mechanic / directing planes on runways). He’s the only one who acts “NATURAL” (believably) as a person, in that the other friends are set up as overdone “exaggerations” of people you’d be exceptionally UN-likely to ever actually meet in life (hopefully!)…

… Jay has had little but TROUBLE in his “romantic” life: His ex-girlfriend Marnie (Lindsay Sloane) is not only self-centered & thoughtless, she has the gall to LIVE (as he does) at the home of HIS own father (Adam LeFevre) & mother (Debra Jo Rupp, from TV’s “That 70’s Show”). Lindsay also constantly brings her NEW boyfriend (Ron ?, played by Hayes MacArthur) to the house to visit her, and they both regularly “put down” Jay…

… Naturally (in continuing the “tradition” of extremes in the film), Jay’s brother Dylan (Kyle Bornheimer) is ALSO incredibly unrefined and juvenile, regularly jumping on Jay, putting him down, and spouting a series of stupid and insulting comments to everyone around (as he’s consistently CLOD-like to his pregnant girlfriend)… Only Jay’s mother tends to be “supportive” of him as a person…

… As Jay & his buddies are working in the airport, a gorgeous-looking young lady named Molly (Alice Eve) enters to check-in for a flight. While she is striking in appearance, it’s “OVERKILL” in the way the film has almost all the men in the place get ridiculously “bug-eyed” and “stupid-acting” when looking at her…

… Stainer (T.J.) and his boss in Security make SEXIST comments to Alice that’d normally get them promptly FIRED from their jobs in “real” life, whereas Jay behaves very respectfully— which very favorably impresses Alice…

… T.J. has many annoying habits, one of which is to keep “RATING” Jay, pointing out that, on a scale of 10, he’s at best a “5” (& Stainer sees himself as at least a 7). Further, he regularly can be found ranting about Alice (& any good-looking girls) that, “She’s out of your league!”… (He’s the “reason” for the maxim that, With “friends” like that, you don’t need “enemies”!…)

… Anyway, as gorgeous blond Alice is on the plane, she tells her friend Patty (Krysten Ritter) — clearly set-up as a foul-mouthed “counterpoint” to Stainer — that she’s forgotten her iPhone in going thru Security. Krysten promptly dials the phone, which rings right next to JAY, & she has him hold the phone for Alice to pick up later (thereby setting up a way for Alice to get to KNOW him better)…

… To thank Jay for his help, Alice invites him to an event she’s planned at the Warhol Museum, where he’s his usual “fish-out-of-water” self. She LIKES his “realness”, in part because (as Krysten points out) he’s “SAFE” compared to the past guys she’s dated (such as fighter pilot Cam, played by Geoff Stults, whom Jay soon meets when he & Alice go out to dinner)…

… Alice quite ENJOYS being with Jay, who’s “down-to-earth” even if not “exciting”. She invites him & T.J. to a see a game of professional hockey (which Jay loves). Alice eagerly agrees to meet his FAMILY & ex-girlfriend, most of whom promptly act in a way that’d make outlaw “Hillbillies” look good; but, she’s “unfazed” by them, which amazes Jay (who still can’t believe she’s “into” him)… They keep sharing experiences with each other & his friends— bowling, etc…

… Jay’s buddies keep trying to “ADVISE” him how to be even more successful with Alice, including Mike’s very graphically showing him how to better “groom” himself in “personal” areas— which another friend works to “accomplish” for him, in one of the funnier scenes of the movie…

… As shown in the trailer, Jay is at one point in a “romantic” interlude with Alice— and gets overly “ECSTATIC” about the situation, just as her PARENTS chance to arrive at her place. She doesn’t “understand” his reaction to them, & gets peeved about it all… Meanwhile, his buddies make FUN of what happened, although one works to give him “sensible” advise to try to “FIX” the misunderstanding with Alice…

… Will Jay and Alice get back TOGETHER, & will they KEEP seeing each other?… Will his ex-girlfriend “REACT” to that in a strange way?… Will his family “accept” Alice, & will hers welcome Jay?… Can such a relationship LAST between people so “opposite” in so many ways?…

… A friend commented after the film that she feels it’s “fluff”— but it was ENJOYABLE overall… It’s “R”-rated because they keep trying to “push-the-ever-expanding-envelope” with sexually-related discussions and “actions”… A couple (but only a couple) of people in the audience laughed fairly regularly; most laughed only every once in a while (and then at “situations” more than any really “clever” dialogue)…

… The film has some INTERESTING and well-done “observations” it makes on people suffering from a LOW level of self-esteem (as Jay’s character does). Jay and Alice are really EXCELLENT in “fitting” their roles, with Alice being unusually “believable” in her inherent niceness to Jay and people around him (“despite” the way some of them – like T.J. & Kyle — are usually jackasses at best)…

… In a way, that’s one of the main problems I had with the film: as written, too MANY of the characters are simply too “EXTREME” & inherently UN-funny as people to be “believed” or liked; it goes beyond “exaggeration” into often-UNpleasant “STEREOTYPES” of “crazy” friends & family…

… The movie has some “FUN” in it, but it’s only PARTIALLY successful at that (tho it seems to “bode well” for the director and various of the actors for their FUTURE work)…