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"…Lived A Life So Exciting…It Sounds Made Up…"
Thirtysomething modern-day New York lady Imogene Duncan
(Kristen Wiig) has the lot - a well-to-do boyfriend who once stated they were
Soul Mates (he'd say it again if only if he could stay off his mobile long
enough to remember), an apartment in the right address with a unformed doorman
(none of your riff raff here), society friends who wear Jimmy Choos and sip
cocktails (their spitefulness makes the real housewives of Beverley Hills look
positively saintly) and even a possible writing career outside of the magazine
she works for (if she could only get that Play she was supposed to write 8
years back down on paper). What could possibly go wrong? Well, try
everything...
And then the diced carrots really hit the fan when brash
Zelda her bed-hopping gambling-addicted mother shows up from New Jersey in a
stolen car...on loan from her new younger boyfriend who goes under the pseudonym
George Bousche and claims to be an undercover CIA agent with possible Samurai
consciousness tie-ins (hilarious turns by Annette Bening and Matt Dillon).
Imogene rapidly loses her boyfriend, her job, her apartment and her
fair-weather socialite pals - eventually ending up back in Ocean City in rental
Hell in her "Friends" teeshirt instead of snazzy clothes.
Only now her old room has been let out by gambler Mom to a
complete stranger who doesn't change the sheets that often (a handsome turn by
Darren Criss) and Imogene has also to live and deal with Ralph - her almost
mentally challenged younger brother who won't go any further than the boardwalk
and whose fixated on crabs and the invention of a human shield like the outer
crusts of molluscs (a part that could so easily have been awful superlatively
played by Christopher Fitzgerald). Then it gets worse. Only now does Imogene
learn that Mum's hopeless parenting might even extend to lies about her
supposedly dead father. Maybe he's a genius author right now - very much alive
and well and living like a millionaire in a plush townhouse back in the New
York area she just lost...
Co-Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and
written by Michelle Morgan from her own experiences - "Girl Most
Likely" as you can imagine is a bit all over the place story-wise - but
it's undeniably witty and at times very touching - a hard combo to get right.
And it has superb roles for women - hitting a lot of those mid-life crisis
points along its convoluted but merry way. A lot of the fun credit has to go
the two superlative women leads -
Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening whose scenes together are electric - Bening
getting the look, the swagger and the god-awful garish clothes of Zelda
absolutely spot on. But they're not to be outdone by the men in what was
obviously a 'nice' movie to work on - good material made by good people.
The BLU RAY picture quality is beautiful throughout and
stretched to the full screen. But don't watch the 'making of' extra first - it
rather stupidly gives away too many key scenes - especially those featured
towards the end of the movie.
Not a masterpiece by any stretch of the cinematic
imagination - but this little film has heart and laughs and is a lot better
than most. Luckily you won't get crabs off "Girl Most Likely" - but
you'll be glad after you watched it that you addled up to it's plentiful charms
in the first place...
