Cliché Grad a Failed Applicant
After Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) graduates from college with honors, she embarks on the next stage of her life plan (a plan she developed pre-High School and has subsequently religiously followed) by interviewing at a prestigious Los Angeles publishing firm. She’s intent on becoming an editor and discovering the next great American author, sure her solid grades, upbeat demeanor and dogged enthusiasm will get her the job she already knows she so richly deserves.
Rodrigo Santoro and Alexis Bledel in Fox Searchlight's Post Grad
Life, however, has other plans, and after Ryden doesn’t get the position she suddenly finds herself living back at home with mom Carmella (Jane Lynch), dad Walter (Michael Keaton), little brother Hunter (Bobby Coleman) and her cantankerous grandmother Maureen (Carol Burnett). In need of a work she goes from interview to interview striking spectacularly out each time, and ironically it isn’t until Walter flattens their sexy neighbor David’s (Rodrigo Santoro) cat things begin to start looking up. As Ryden’s best friend Adam (Zach Gilford) looks on winsomely, the post grad youngster continues to try and put her plan back in action, inadvertently missing out on the potential for love staring he right in the face.
You don’t expect a lot from a movie like Post Grad. A coming of age romantic comedy very much in the quirky Juno mold, the movie wants to combine the traditional plot progressions of something like The Proposal or The Secret of My Success and combine them with the dysfunctional familial awkwardness of Little Miss Sunshine. It is as a fusion of indie silliness and slickly old fashioned Hollywood cliché, and as long as the cast puts in a decent effort, the direction is smooth and the script doesn’t call too much attention to its own mediocrity the chances for passably amusing disposable entertainment are actually pretty high.
I’d like to say director Vicky Jenson’s (Shark Tale) live action effort gets at least one of those three things right, the truth of the matter is that even with a cast of seasoned pros who could arguably generate laughs at a funeral this film falls frustratingly flat. It is an inert, hugely boring misfire that almost put me to sleep, and by the time it was over I could only thank my lucky stars I’d only spent 90 minutes of my time trying to watch the darn thing.
Weird, because you’d think with seasoned vets like Keaton, Lynch, J.K. Simmons and the divine Ms. Burnett there would at least be one or two signature moments I could point out that brought some sort of smile to my face. The fact of the matter that’s just not true, all of them trying so hard to mind for emotion and for comedy that just isn’t there I was really rather embarrassed for them all. Burnett, in particular, is dreadfully unlikable, and while I’m all for giving every grandma in the world a heartfelt hug if Maureen had been hit by a speeding automobile I can’t say I would have shed even a single solitary tear.
The truth of the matter is that there is no point to writer Kelly Fremon’s schizophrenic screenplay. It can’t decide what it is or who the people inside of it are. No one feels like a three dimensional human being, all of them becoming weird, disembodied caricatures of charters we’ve seen in countless other independent comedies of the last decade. Worse than that, when the chips finally fall Fremon turns to the most tired of clichés, Ryden just another smart woman whose dreams are nothing compared to their maddening need be on the arm of a caringly sympathetic man.
Do not misunderstand, I am a rather maudlin romantic at heart in many ways and had I cared anything at all for Bledel (or felt she had even an ounce of chemistry with Gilford) I’d probably be able to forgive much of what happens during the climactic stretch. But that is decidedly not the case, and instead of being able to gloss over its faults all Post Grad does is tick me off.
As mean as I am being here, I will say that there are a few brief pockets of joy here that makes me think of what might have been. The relationship between Ryden and David, while brief and mostly left to the imagination, is surprisingly heartfelt, the two sharing an intimate moment on the beach that’s perfectly divine. There is also an out of nowhere sequence of sublime poignant honesty between Bledel and Keaton near the end that caught me completely by surprise, the depth of passion passing between the two actors so magnetic it almost brought a tear to my eye.
Maybe this isn’t Fremon’s fault. Maybe there were more moments like these throughout the screenplay that were unfortunately curtailed by the studio. Maybe someone hovered over Jenson’s shoulder forcing her to make things wackier, to streamline the narrative and amp up the Malby family’s eccentricities. But that’s a lot of maybes I’ll never know the answers to and while I’d like to assume the best the worst is unfortunately all I’ve got to talk about, Post Grad a failed applicant better left in the unemployment line.
Film Rating: ê1/2 (out of 4)
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