Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is a successful career admissions officer at Princeton University about to enter yet another admissions season and poised to receive a big promotion when her long-term live-in boyfriend (Michael Sheen in a throwaway role) leaves her and she meets the son she secretly gave up for adoption years ago. We follow her life as it quickly unravels and she tries to pick up the pieces. But because Portia is played by Tina Fey and we love Tina Fey, we enjoy the emotional ride of a late thirties woman undergoing a personal and professional crisis, notwithstanding that Tina Fey is always portraying women whose lives are falling apart.
Oh yes, Paul Rudd shows up too, essentially as Paul Rudd version 11.0, as he is just around to provide some romantic entanglement for the story. But romantic comedy this is not. The funniest scenes are with Lily Tomlin as Tina Fey’s shotgun-wielding mom and when we get an “insider’s” take on the college admissions process. The latter is because most of the population has been on the applying end of the process as opposed to Portia’s end and are aware there is much material there for laughter. I am not sure that meeting your biological son suddenly makes you develop maternal instincts but the son, Jeremiah (Nat Wolff) is quirky and likable enough and we want him to succeed as much as Portia does, but mainly because we want her to succeed too.
Recommendation: Watch it if you are only in the mood for something light and heartfelt; otherwise, save for a rental, download, etc.
