Claudia Puig Kristen Wiig should, in theory, be able to elevate any film or show she's in simply by showing up and being her smart, clever, fearless self. With a well-timed deadpan aside or an amusingly awkward physical bit, she makes decent material better and good material great. This is a notion that "Girl Most Likely" pushes to the absolute limits. Wiig finds herself sadly outmatched in this comedy crammed with wacky and tacky characters—types, all of them—in which she's stuck functioning as the uptight, frustrated straight woman in the middle. She rarely gets a chance to shine because her role is so underwritten. Husband-and-wife directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini have had success in the past with inspired subject matter, such as the excellent "American Splendor" from 2003. Here, they're working from a script by Michelle Morgan that's chock-full of contrived situations and very few moments that actually ring true. It contains a menagerie of quirky weirdos: people we're clearly meant to laugh at for being ridiculous, delusional, pathetic or all of the above, up until the precise moment that we're supposed to join the film in doing a 180-degree turn and embracing them for being exactly who they are. This is the formulaic, inevitable journey Wiig's character, Imogene, must travel. At the film's start, she's a well-to-do Manhattan magazine writer attending a society event with her obviously evasive longtime boyfriend. It's clear she doesn't quite fit in with these old-moneyed women, though—she doesn't have the right pedigree or wear the right dress or say just the right, vapid thing in conversation. With head-spinning swiftness, Imogene loses her boyfriend, job and apartment and fakes a suicide attempt, all of which plays out in broad, sitcommy fashion. And so this once- promising playwright must return to her hometown, a place she's been running from her whole adult life: the cheesy slab of boardwalk known as Ocean City, N.J. (In case we didn't know we were in New Jersey, "Girl Most Likely" features really obvious song choices on the soundtrack from both Bon Jovi AND Bruce Springsteen.) There, she is forced to coexist in a cramped, cluttered beach house with her blowsy, hard- gambling mother, Zelda (Annette Bening in a husky accent) and Zelda's younger boyfriend, an alleged CIA agent who goes by the name George Bousche (say it out loud). He's played by Matt Dillon. There's also Imogene's younger brother, Ralph (Christopher Fitzgerald), who's obsessed with crabs and appears to be mentally challenged in some unspecified way; and Lee ("Glee" star Darren Criss), the twenty-something who's renting out Imogene's childhood bedroom. Bob Balaban gets even less to work with as Imogene and Ralph's father, whom they haven't seen in decades because their mother told them he was dead. This development is also supposed to be funny, and poignant, but never succeeds either way. It's not enough to assemble an esteemed cast—you have to give them something worthwhile to, you know, do. Criss, in his first major role in a feature film, is the only person to emerge completely unscathed. While his character may seem impossibly sweet and charming, Criss has a natural likability and some nice chemistry with Wiig—more so than anybody else in the cast, certainly. ("Glee" fans will be happy to know that the leader of the Warblers does indeed get to belt out a suddenly ubiquitous, '90s boy-band tune.) But the desperate straining for laughs isn't nearly so off-putting as the abrupt tonal shift "Girl Most Likely" makes as it trudges toward its conclusion. The film encourages us to enjoy feeling superior and smug to Imogene's relatives and their schlocky surroundings, just as she does, then goes all soft and gooey and wants us to love them. This is particularly difficult to do because they're not so much recognizable people as a collection of flimsy eccentricities, shriveling up in the sunshine of the Jersey shore.

Kay Bee How is this movie getting good user reviews? It's terrible. It starts out okay and you think that you might be in for a surprise but then it just turns into every cliché available! Bad, bad, bad ending. The characters are walking stereotypes, no originality, and Imogene is super unlikeable! Just one example is her outrage at her mother renting out her room although she has never been home since she left high school many years earlier. She is utterly self absorbed and judgmental. Another thing I strongly dislike is a fat shaming incident near the end where to get back at someone who was unkind to Imogene she is told her butt looks huge in her dress and we're supposed to think this puts her in her place. This script was written by a woman! Come on woman, break out of that crap! It had potential but did not fulfill it at all.

zetes A movie whose script is so bad you have to wonder how it ever got made. It would easily be one of the worst movies that came out last year if not for the charming lead performance by Kristen Wiig. The performance isn't that much different from her work in Bridesmaids, but she was so good there I really didn't mind revisiting it. Wiig plays Imogene (which was the original name of the film), a failed playwright in New York City who has to move back in with her mother (Annette Bening) in Atlantic City after a failed suicide attempt. The trailer promised a funny movie about a messed up adult woman dealing with her nutjob mom, but Bening's character pretty much falls by the wayside. Again, one has to wonder why an actress of Bening's status signed onto this project. There's some stuff about Bening's new boyfriend (Matt Dillon), an eccentric man who claims to be a secret CIA agent. Most of the movie has Wiig falling for younger man Darren Criss. He's not bad, but the romance isn't that interesting. There's also Wiig's socially inept brother, Christopher Fitzgerald. This character is the movie's greatest failing. He's obsessed with hermit crabs and has built his own shell. The inane quirk comes in hard from left field, and any genuine emotions the film wants to have (there's a decent plot line about Wiig and Fitzgerald trying to find their long-lost father, Bob Balaban) are sabotaged. There are some amusing moments, and Wiig makes it mostly watchable, but it never builds to anything. The climax is based 100% on the film's worst, most quirky elements, and it's insanely dumb.

callanvass Imogene's life is in complete disarray. Her love interest has left, and her status isn't what it once was, she also steals. She moves back in with her family for a while, horrified to learn that her father isn't dead she was told. She meets a man named Lee, who not only helps give Imogene's life meaning again, but helps her search for her father's presence as well. I like Kristen Wiig. I liked her on SNL, and I enjoy her in movies. This was quite a change of pace for her, and while this movie is flawed, I must give Wiig a lot of credit for having the determination. It's a bit quirky and sentimental, but I actually enjoyed a lot of this movie. Your enjoyment of this movie may depend on how much you can relate to the selfishness of Kristen Wiig. If you can't tolerate her self absorbed character, you might have a miserable experience. If you manage to get into the character, I think you'll have a decent time with this movie. You can be renowned as much as possible, but if you aren't truly happy with your life, all the fame & exposure isn't gonna do squat for your happiness. When Imogene gets bailed out of jail, and is asked to sum up her experience, she says "disappointing" that's how much she is pining for happiness & adventure in her life. It's a decent character study. Kristen Wiig gives a great performance. It was neat to watch her evolve from prissy to a human being. Her character goes through a major transformation in the second half, and I thought Wiig did a tremendous job. Annette Bening is very good as the outlandish mother. Matt Dillon steals many scenes that he's in with his character. Darren Criss does a great Backstreet Boys impression. I thought his chemistry with Wiig was cute. Overall, this is quite imperfect, but I do have to give it credit. It definitely kept my attention throughout. It's worth a watch6.4/10