Opinion
“She’s Out of My League”: A home run
The cynics and critics can all say we’ve seen this movie 1,000 times before. A geeky guy lands a beautiful girl in spite of the odds. To them I say, so what? It made me laugh and what else is a comedy supposed to do?
Kirk (Jay Baruchel) comes to the screen as a cross between French Stewart and a nerdy James Dean. Completely skinny and devoid of muscle tone, his job with the TSA brings him in contact with hot party planner, Molly (Alice Eve).
Molly, sick of dating hunky dudes who cheat on her, likes Kirk and gives him a chance. They start going out and the story, somewhat formulaic, proceeds. However, it proceeds with a great deal of laughter.
Supporting Kirk throughout his courtship of Molly are his three friends, Stainer (TJ Miller), Jack (Mike Vogel) and Devon (Nate Torrence). Each one represents an aspect of Kirk’s personality.
It’s as though he’s having a conversation with himself each time he talks with them. His internal struggle of wondering if he is truly worthy of being with someone as gorgeous as Molly is played out through his conversations with them.
Stainer is the typical foul-mouthed, boastful buddy who moonlights as a Daryl Hall impersonator. He represents Kirk’s jaded feeling after being dumped by former girlfriend Marnie (Lindsay Sloane). Director Jim Field Smith does not even try to hide this very well, as we larn Stainer has gone through the same inferiority complex with another girl that Kirk is facing with Molly.
Jack is the good-looking, quiet guy we don’t hear much from. Probably because Kirk is neither good-looking or confident enough to carry a presence just by being in a room.
Then there’s Devon, the chubby, married guy obsessed with Disney cartoon depictions of romance. Obviously, Devon is Kirk’s sentimental side, which Kirk keeps guarded throughout the movie.
We see Kirk as he would probably make himself if he had the ability in Molly’s ex, Cam (Geoff Stults-even that guy’s name sounds cool). Cam is a pilot, which Kirk aspires to be, as well as confident and ridiculously good-looking. Who wouldn’t want to be this guy?
Maybe I read too much into characters. I don’t know. This is just what I saw while I was laughing myself silly.
The performances in this film were pretty good. Kyle Bornheimer is brilliant as Kirk’s idiotic older brother and Sloane does well in the witchy ex-girlfriend role.
This film will make you uncomfortable and probably gross you out. That is, unless you’ve seen enough of these films that you have become slightly desensitized to it. However, the gross scenes are brief and do not take away from the overall enjoyment. They are not overdone and they are integral to the storyline.
This film is meant to make you laugh and I, as well as the rest of the crowd in the theater, did just that. Enjoy it for what it is worth and remember that in this world, people like you for who you are. You should like yourself as well.
i give it four-and-a-half stars out of five.
- Opinion
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