TBTS Reviews: She’s Out of My League

She’s Out of My League is not a great movie, perhaps not even a good one. However, I enjoyed many parts of it and, even more so, found myself liking what it represents while I was watching it. It’s a low-budget but decidedly mainstream (i.e., not “indie” or, worse yet, “quirky”) romantic comedy with no names-above-the-title superstars. I hope it paves the way for more, and better, movies like it.

First, the flaws: Jay Baruchel’s performance as Kirk, the leading man and generally the straight man for his funnier buddies, was not strong enough to anchor the film. It was actually pretty annoying. Imagine a sort of “millennial Richard Lewis” and you’re zeroing in on the screen presence Baruchel chose to adopt for his character, the “5” who scores a “10.” I’m giving him enough credit to think that he chose to play Kirk this way, rather than assuming it’s his only acting trick, because I don’t recall such pronounced “neurotic shlub” tendencies in his smaller roles in films such as Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder.

Also, I didn’t really buy the actual romance between Kirk and Molly, played decently but blandly by Alice Eve. The standard “long, deep conversation on a romantic walk through the city” scene, and the few other moments where we actually see them interacting as a couple, were unconvincing and rather dull. During those scenes, I found myself counting down the time until they went back to their respective camps to talk about each other. The scenes with their families and friends were much more satisfying, funny, and authentic.

Now, the positives: as mentioned above, many of those scenes with the family and friends were pretty solid. The scenes involving Kirk’s family, portrayed as being filled with dysfunctional individuals but somehow functional as a unit, were among the film’s best and funniest. The twist that the family had “taken in” Kirk’s ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend added several opportunities for good comedy grounded in Kirk’s overwhelming discomfort at their presence.

In just about every comedy these days, the lead guy has got to have his entourage of crude “bros” who constantly deride him but of course always have his back. She’s Out of My League is no different. I was unfamiliar with T.J. Miller, the actor who plays Kirk’s chief bro, Stainer, before this film, but now I hope to see more of him. Stainer was overall a solid, forceful comedic presence in the film, and Miller accomplished a lot with a very standard, generic character—the “wisecracking best friend.”

That brings me back to my starting point. I like She’s Out of My League for demonstrating that you don’t need big names to pull off a forgettable but passably amusing romantic comedy. Frequently, those familiar, expensive faces are especially distracting in romantic comedies, where the story of the actual characters takes a distant backseat to the overriding sense of “Here’s a $20 million dollar actor obsessing about love for two hours.” The no-stars model takes that potential pitfall off the table from the beginning.

It’s a fairly obvious point, but one worth making briefly, that avoiding big names with big salaries in a modest, unambitious romantic comedy also makes good business sense. She’s Out of My League cost $20 million to make, and thus far it’s grossed about $25 million in domestic release only. It’s not going to be a big hit, but it should still turn a modest profit, especially after wider global release in theaters and on DVD. Sure, they could have spent twice as much and gotten bigger names, and it could have been a hit (like The Proposal), but it also could have flopped (like All About Steve).

For both those reasons, I hope more movies follow League’s example.

Final verdict: She’s Out of My League is generic but sufficiently enjoyable. Rent it this summer for a quietly pleasant break from the big-budget onslaught of explosions, superheroes, and sequels.