Movie Review: Admission

Admission
3 stars

A movie starring Tina Fey is a movie America expects and wants to love. Unfortunately, “Admission” is neither reminiscent of “Mean Girls” nor “Baby Mama”—maybe Amy Poehler is necessary for a true success.

Portia Nathan (Fey) is a clean-cut admissions counselor at Princeton who has made a career out of denying countless students the opportunity to be a Tiger. She prunes the bonsai tree on her desk as carefully as she scours through applications until her seemingly perfectly simplistic life changes course. Her long-term boyfriend (Michael Sheen) announces that he is leaving her to be with the to-be mother of his twins and she receives a call from a persistent principal (Paul Rudd).

Upon visiting this school, Portia meets John Pressman (Rudd) who introduces Portia to Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), his student who he believes should be considered by Princeton. Soon after, John informs Portia that he thinks Jeremiah is her son.

After the initial shock, Portia quickly becomes excited about being a mother and, without blowing her cover, helps Jeremiah. When he visits Princeton, Portia even sneaks into a party that he’s at and offers to take him toothbrush shopping. The extent, though, to which Portia goes to nurture a son she has not even made sure is her own is definitely strange (and makes me wonder why Princeton didn’t object to being involved in the movie).

The film’s plot is unrealistic but “Admission” doesn’t deserve to be totally rejected. Lily Tomlin is especially funny as Portia’s mom who believes her dogs can hunt for their own food and Rudd and Fey’s romance in the film is charming. When Portia’s life ends up all amuck, we know that we can count on John to come to her rescue.

Directed by Paul Weitz (“About a Boy,”) the film is a pleasant see but could have been better if left as a comedy about college admissions, instead of a rom-com about that and motherhood. If you have a queue of movies waiting to see, I’d put “Admission” on the waiting list.