Tina Fey is quirky. You can’t put her in a romantic comedy unless it is quirky and different. And she needs a quirky male counterpart—and who is quirkier than Paul Rudd, right?
Fey also needs a quirky, different movie job (hmm … Princeton admissions administrator … that’s new!), and her character needs a quirky name (Portia!) and a quirky situation. In the case of Admission, Portia finds out that a kid who may be the son she gave up for adoption—a student of Rudd’s character—is applying to Princeton. He’s not a lock, and the quirky Rudd character asks her to consider the quirky kid for the school.
This puts her in the quirky, precarious position of trying to push a kid through admissions who may or may not be her son. There’s also her quirky mom, played by the Queen of Quirk, Lily Tomlin, who conceived Portia in the quirkiest of ways (anonymous sex on a train). This all leads up to a big meeting with the head of admissions, played by the Sir Duke of Quirk, Wallace Shawn.
Does the kid get in? Do Rudd and Fey hook up and have quirky, gross sex? Is the quirky kid her son? Do you care?
You won’t. This film wants to be different, but it’s different to the point that it becomes implausible and phony. Rudd and Fey get a laugh here and there, but the overriding vibe of the movie is, besides being really frigging quirky, dour and unpleasant.
Special Features: A promotional video about the making of the movie basically tells you the plot and does little to get anybody excited about this stupid movie.