The new family comedy-drama Girl Most Likely tells the story of Imogen (Kristen Wiig) being fired from her writing gig. She hits rock bottom when she sets up a fake suicide (or maybe it is not fake which is one of the faults of this feature’s tone) and ends up in the hospital. Her only loved one who can claim to take care of her is her astrainged mother played by Annette Bening (miles away from her typical superb work).
Synopsis: Kristen Wiig stars as Imogene, once a promising young New York playwright whose promise has fizzled, thanks to a crisis of confidence. Heavily in denial about being dumped by her society boyfriend, Imogene uses her skill for drama to stage an elaborate fake suicide as an appeal for his sympathy. But her attempt backfires when she’s put into the custody of Zelda, her estranged gambling addict mother (Annette Bening), and must return home with her to the Jersey shore. Desperate to get back to her Manhattan circle of so- called friends, Imogene must finally deal with her family, including her unique brother (Christopher Fitzgerald), Zelda’s new boyfriend The Bousche (Matt Dillon), plus a cute young lodger (Darren Criss),who together help Imogene sort out her place in the world. (c) Roadside Attractions
Flooded with many estrogen-infused indie clichés, Girl Most Likely squanders its potential for any of the coveted crossover appeal few little movies can achieve. It’s adequate enough for a very shallow entertaining value and offers required viewing for big fans any of the actors involved only. What a let down of a movie that Girl Most Likely was. One would expect solid potential in casting Kristen Wiig as an aspiring writing who has a suicidal nervous breakdown and the crazy mother who takes her in played by Annette Bening. It reeks of potential especially since it played at film festivals. Not everything was a loss, but there isn’t much to work with as some moments are funny while others weren’t. I have worried that Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy could be typecast as a female Chris Farley based on her movie choices. Kristen Wiig should be careful or she will be the woman who finds humor in the painfully awkward identity and career crisis.
Let me use this time to rant about the flawed Rotten Tomatoes score regarding the 15% rating for Girl Most Likely. It is nowhere near that bad. It seems if a movie receives a C+, that’s a “rotten” score, but a B- is fresh. Girl Most Likely is a C, but shouldn’t be ranked as low as 15 out of 100. Moviegoers consume the Rotten Tomato score like mindless zombies. Time to revamp or over throw that scoring system.
