By
a process of elimination--no desire to see “Jurassic Park in 3D”, “Evil
Dead” or “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” we were left with “Admission”. I am a
Paul Rudd fan, more about him later, but I publicly admit I am not
familiar with Tina Fey. I stopped watching “SNL” years ago though I did
catch her clever Palin imitation, I may have watched “30 Rock” here and
there for a total of 30 minutes and I did watch the Golden Globes. I did
see her in “Date Night” but my mind has blanked it out. It being
Friday, movie day, “Admission” it was.

“Admission”
is an easy going, pleasant forgettable movie. Whether it is suppose to
be a romantic comedy between Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, and there is very
little comedy while they have no romantic spark between them, instead
coming across as brother and sister or good friends or it is suppose to
be a satirical look at someone who holds the power of whether a person
does or doesn’t get into Princeton, it fails all around. Tina Fey is a
pretty woman at times while a minute later can look ordinary.

I
am a big fan of Paul Rudd and just a few years ago looked at him as a
‘cutie’, a funny actor and someone who could be ‘the boy next door’ (if
only LOL!) He has made many movies and doesn’t fear playing losers but
of his movies, maybe 3 have been hits, with one due to him. He comes
across warm in “Admission” as a father who adopts a Black boy and
mentors a talented boy named Jeremiah while running a new school that
sounds like one from the ‘60s. Rudd needs that one film that will break
his competent acting but put him in the A group of stars where he
belongs. And, Paul, please trim that head of hair!

The
script by Karen Croner covers too many agendas not giving importance to
any of them. The director, Paul Weitz, has a good cast of supporting
players like Michael Sheen as Tina’s long time companion, Wallace Shawn
as her boss, Gloria Reuben as her work competitor but of all it is Lily
Tomlin as her mother that steals every scene she is in and runs away
with the movie. The main problem is that her role isn’t big enough. It
is time a producer hires Jane Wagner to write a movie built around
Tomlin’s many talents or, just as good a film with Tomlin and Fey as
Mother and Daughter, who are quite believable in this film in those
roles.

Hopefully
Tina Fey will make a movie that will be as strong as her “SNL” and “30
Rock” writing and acting that has proven how talented she has been.