Wiig Only Bright Spot in Girl Most Likely

Comedy is standard indie fare
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 19, 2013 8:39 AM CDT

Kristen Wiig's first starring role since Bridesmaids is, well, no Bridesmaids. She has her moments, but the rest of Girl Most Likely is pretty much recycled indie comedy, critics say:

  • "This lazy comedy plays like a round of Quirky Indie Mad Libs," Sara Stewart writes in the New York Post. "Kristen Wiig is a struggling New York (blank) who freaks out when (blank) and ends up back in Nowheresville, (blank), with her trashy mom who (blank) and her weird brother who (blank)." (The answer to the last blank: "wants to be a human hermit crab.")

  • In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis calls the film "a forced, laugh-challenged comedy with an appealing if not terribly well-used cast." The writing "chugs along on low-key humor and leans on more clichés than it mildly subverts." Still, "it’s impossible not to root for Kristen Wiig."
  • "Somewhere in this overstuffed mix, there's probably a good movie about a woman's journey to self-discovery and self-acceptance," writes Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Times. "But Girl ... is a tonal jumble, veering between forced farce and tired, rom-com beats, with little feeling real or true."
  • It's "a movie you’ve seen before—the failed independent child who has to return to a wacky, dysfunctional family," notes Tom Long in the Detroit News. "But still, it’s Wiig, and her sly mumbling, wide-eyed responses, and despairing sighs carry much magic."
(More movie review stories.)

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