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Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) trades in disappointment. She is a
Princeton admissions counselor, and basically what she does is condense a
person’s whole life into a single, small folder full of stats, figures,
proficiencies, marketable traits, etc.—you know, the stuff that really matters.
Then Portia decides who is worthy. Worthy, that is, of gaining entrance into
Princeton, which of course is the highly prestigious kind of place where all the
successful and interesting and productive people go to learn how to be very successful,
very interesting, and very productive.
Portia trades in disappointment because, well, not every who
wants to go to Princeton gets to go to Princeton. Not by a long shot.
And that includes Jeremiah (Nat Wolff). Jeremiah is an
exceptionally bright kid who gets bad grades because he is unconventional (He calls himself an ‘autodidact’, which just means
he is self taught. People in the movie keep mentioning that Jeremiah calls
himself an autodidact as if the fact that he understands the word is proof of
his brilliance. It’s annoying.). Unfortunately, unconventional students do not
usually get into Princeton.
Nevertheless, Jeremiah and his teacher, John Pressman (Paul
Rudd), keep at it. They email Portia, call her, visit her office, and even invite
her to their unique little school where they chop wood, learn about robotics,
and occasionally partake in a little cow midwifery. Portia is a busy woman,
though. She likes Jeremiah all right, but she also knows he is a long shot.
However, it turns out that John has another motive for
introducing Portia and Jeremiah. John believes that Jeremiah is Portia’s son (the
son Portia had back when she herself was unconventional).
Portia does not know what to do. At first she resists; she is angry and
depressed. Then she tries to bargain her way out of contact with Jeremiah.
Finally, though, Portia decides to accept the situation and embrace Jeremiah.
It all looks a lot like the stages of grief, but hey, at least Portia ends up
on the right team.
Portia feels like she owes it to Jeremiah to get him into
Princeton. That is the least she can do, I guess, and I suppose the hope is
that a little Ivy-league love will fix everything. The problem is that, despite
his intelligence, Jeremiah’s file does not look great. Also, it turns out that Portia
is not in a position to unilaterally decide whether Jeremiah gets in. And
anyway, Portia has other things to worry about—her long-term boyfriend just
broke up with her, for instance. Plus, she doesn’t know how she feels about
John; maybe she likes him. Oh, and Portia’s mom is mean.
A lot happens in “Admission”. One thing this movie has going
for it is two enormously likable lead actors. Tina Fey is quirky and down to
earth. She comes off as smart and sophisticated, but not pretentious—the kind
of person who really enjoys hotdogs and lousy TV shows. Rudd’s appeal is
similar. He can be goofy at times, but he also knows how to be serious. Just
like Fey, he seems smart, but again, grounded in reality.
Even so, “Admission” does not work. This is a miracle, given
how hard it is to resist a duo like Fey and Rudd. But nothing about this movie
feels right. Everything is rushed along. Storylines are added here and there.
Twists veer off to who knows where. One minute the world is coming to an end,
and five minutes later everyone is one big happy family.
“Admission” is supposed to be a romantic comedy. But it is
neither romantic nor comedic. It is more like a mildly amusing series of events
wherein two people hook up a few times. Tina Fey and Paul Rudd may make sense,
but Portia Nathan and John Pressman do not.
Tina Fey usually writes her own movies, but she took a break
on this one. So I guess the moral is: Fey needs to get back to work.
