Contrary to its title, “Girls Most Likely” is anything but a likable comedy.
A high-concept picture of the worst kind, the film is full of quirks and jokes, but has no real characters or contents. “Girl Most Likely” aims to cash in on the talent and popularity of Kristen Wiig.
Wiig plays a New York playwright, who going through an emotional depression, is ordered, by court order no less, to live with her awful and dreaded mother in her old Jersey Shore home .
The entire family and its tenants are eccentric but dysfunctional: Her creepy brother (Christopher Fitzgerald) is also in the house, as is a hunky tenant (Darren Criss), who, to her chagrin, lives in what used to be her own room. Then there is the mother’s boyfriend (Matt Dillon, totally wasted), who claims to be a CIA operative.
Wiig may not be the talented actress-comedienne we thought she would become. With the exception of few big-screen roles, she has been far better and funnier in “Saturday Night Live.”
In Wiig’s defense, she has no real character to play. As written by Michelle Morgan, the part is composed of a series of sketches and gags, with no arch or development. The whole movie is a series of sketches, better suitable for half an hour TV show.
But my main disappointment is with the husband and wife directors, Robert Pulcini and Shari Spring Berman, who have helmed only bad pictures after reaching a height with the original indie “American Splendor” (in 2003). I served on the dramatic jury of the Sundance Film Fest that year, and I am very proud that all five of us were unanimous in our praise, according the feature Best Film. Later, I was a strong supporter, when “American Splendor” won Best Film from our group, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and was nominated for a writing Oscar.
