THE PLOT THUS FAR

Kristen Wiig stars as Imogene, a failed New York playwright awkwardly navigating the transition from Next Big Thing to Last Year’s News. After both her career and relationship hit the skids, she’s forced to make the humiliating move back home to New Jersey with her eccentric mother and younger brother (Annette Bening and Christopher Fitzgerald). Adding further insult to injury, there’s a strange man sleeping in her old bedroom (Darren Criss) and an even stranger man sleeping in her mother’s bed (Matt Dillon). Through it all, Imogene eventually realizes that, as part of her rebuilding process, she must finally come to love and accept both her family and her Jersey roots if she’s ever going to be stable enough to get the hell away from them.

WHAT WE THOUGHT

“Girl Most Likely” doesn’t turn to gross-out humor for its laughs, but generates them from character, dialogue, timing and visuals that are so cleverly thought-out that Wiig’s mom’s Ocean City house becomes yet another outlandish character at which we are invited to laugh. Matt Dillon gives his best comedic performance since “There’s Something About Mary,” Christopher Fitzgerald gives a sweet, memorable performance as Imogene’s brother, Ralph, and Darren Criss does a star turn as boy-band singer covering the Back Street Boys in one of the shore’s more pathetic lounges.

There may be a bit too much going on in this film. A subplot of Imogene trying to find her biological father doesn’t do too much to move the story along. The ending also goes way over the top. But ultimately, Kristin Wiig makes Imogene a flawed yet lovable character who we root for. It’s not the worst thing, but it leaves me wondering what to think of Wiig. She obviously wants to do more in the cinema, but she doesn’t quite understand what to make of her Post Bridesmaids success.

The Blu-Ray comes with a gag reel, Digital HD copy, featurettes and deleted scenes. The A/V Quality is pretty sharp with a strong 1080p transfer. However, the DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track is pretty lifeless. Dialogue gets stepped on a little too much for my tastes. What the hell, guys? This isn’t a Robert Altman film. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to the curious.

RELEASE DATE: 11/05/2013