We’ve all heard the story before: a nerdy guy, mediocre looking best, meets a gorgeous, popular girl and strangely enough, they hook up. Yeah, you know the one. The new film She’s Out of My League from director Jim Field Smith follows this same basic outline.
Kirk, played by Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
), is a twenty something with low self-esteem working security at an airport. As he struggles to get over his ex-girlfriend, who just so happens to still hang out at his house with her new boyfriend, he runs into Molly, played by Alice Eve (Crossing Over
). Molly is an event planner that is fed up with dating jerky, muscle-headed guys. Molly decides she needs to date a different type of guy, a safe choice. This is where Kirk comes in.
Molly begins to invite Kirk to some of her events. Initially, Kirk thinks Molly is just being nice but eventually realizes she has an interest in him. As the two begin to date, their friends tell them it won’t work out because they’re just not in the same league. The more Kirk hears his friends doubt him the more he begins to doubt himself. This goes on until we get that typical ending that we all knew was coming.
At some point you expect the jokes to kick in. They don’t. At least not jokes in the plural form. There’s a running bit in the film about guys that drive Neons that made me chuckle, mostly because I myself, drive a Dodge Neon (the Neon driven by Kirk in the movie is actually the Plymouth version though). Other than that, no humor was to be found. The movie had its fair share of awkward moments, but none of them were funny.
The one positive thing I did take from the movie was the performance from Baruchel. I went into this movie doubting he could do well in a lead role. I’ve since changed my mind. I think Baruchel did the best he could with the script he had. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I could relate with the main character, but Baruchel’s portrayal felt real. I’m excited to see what roles he lands in the future.
To me, this movie felt like a generic version of a Judd Apatow film. It seems that’s the audience the film’s writers chose to target, but they ended up missing their mark. With that being said, the movie was better than I had expected, however, I went in not expecting much. If She’s Out of My League were a baseball player, it would be in the minors.