It seems insane that Tina Fey and Paul Rudd have never worked together
on a film before, given how important each of them has been to pretty
much all the good comedy that's come along in the last decade. At long
last, in this Friday's Admission, Fey and Rudd team up in a
classic rom-com conflict-- Fey as a Princeton admissions officer
struggling to hold on to her controlled life in this rarefied world, and
Rudd as the crunchy do-gooder who's aiming to shake her up even more.
The mastermind who's finally united them is Paul Weitz, the director of dramedies like About A Boy and In Good Company that, like Admission, are about people trying to be good to each other, and often failing terribly. Weitz has had his own detours into broader stories (he started his career with American Pie and somehow got tangled up in Little Fockers), but he excels at the human-sized stories like Admission, which weave complicated narrative arcs and eschew easy happy endings in favor of something more bittersweet-- and real.
The mastermind who's finally united them is Paul Weitz, the director of dramedies like About A Boy and In Good Company that, like Admission, are about people trying to be good to each other, and often failing terribly. Weitz has had his own detours into broader stories (he started his career with American Pie and somehow got tangled up in Little Fockers), but he excels at the human-sized stories like Admission, which weave complicated narrative arcs and eschew easy happy endings in favor of something more bittersweet-- and real.