“Imogene, you’ve had a meltdown.”
One minute you’re on top of the world. The next thing you know, your live-in boyfriend is moving out because you can’t seem to get your shit together. And then things start to suck (like, realllly bad). This isn’t anything unheard of for women all over the world, either; these types of situations can be awfully traumatic. ESPECIALLY being a lady playwright in New York City (who was once on a New Yorker top ten list!)—who works full-time— I mean, life is hard! But Imogene (Kristen Wiig) is a little over-the-top in her “dealing” with reality, so much so that she will even fake her own suicide for a little bit of attention from her now ex (Brian Petsos). So when the city life’s expensive realities start to creep up on her, back home to Jersey it is, where things have, ummm, definitely changed (but then again, not really?). For instance: there’s a twenty-something babe Lee (Darren Criss) renting out her room for the time being and she’s secretly obsessed with him. All while her always crazy mother (Annette Bening) dates a bizarre in-and-out “FBI agent” (but nobody really knows if he’s an FBI agent) (Matt Dillon) and her scrub brother (Christopher Fitzgerald) operates his boardwalk hermit crab kiosk. So not really the ideal place to be living after spending years in the big city.
In Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s Girl Most Likely there’s a familiarity of experiences in dealing with life crises/post-breakup situations, and Kristen Wiig just so happens to be the perfect one to depict that suffering role, in a way that’s heartbreakingly funny. You want so badly to feel pity, but her inevitable over-analytical and nutty quirks leave Imogene always second-guessing herself, it’s no surprise she never made it big. But throughout her time back home in her Jersey roots, finally coming to grips with life and understanding that maybe she’s not the only one on the planet dealing with problems, her art naturally begins to grow and, well, so does that long lost play.
While the story was interested and reigned true, I wanted more out of Imogene’s character, and thought the movie shined away from it too much at times. But overall, Girl Most Likely was enjoyable to watch and the comical take on the NYC plastic lifestyle vs. suburban Jersey was laughable, just wanted more resonation of Imogene’s self-discovery. Oh, and I know Lee broke up with her way in the beginning, but there coulda been way more Brian Petsos. Just saying.
(photo via Geek Tyrant)
