Blu-ray Review: Admission

STUDIO: Universal | DIRECTOR: Paul Weitz | CAST: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Lily Tomlin, Michael Sheen
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 7/9/2013 | PRICE: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $34.98
BONUSES: featurette
SPECS: PG-13 | 107 min. | Romantic comedy | 2.40:1 aspect ratio | 5.1 DTS-HD audio | English, Spanish, French subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Admission has the heart of a Paul Weitz (Being Flynn) movie and the comedy of Tina Fey (Date Night) and Paul Rudd (Wanderlust), meaning it’s a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

The romantic comedy stars Fey as a no-nonsense admissions clerk for Princeton University. Rudd is her opposite, a fly by the seat of his pants teacher at an unorthodox high school.

It’s the usual opposites attract and help each other learn story. But the theme here is parenting. Fey didn’t want kids, which causes a rift in her relationship with long-time boyfriend Michael Sheen (Beautiful Boy). Rudd, however, thinks Fey is the biological mother of one of his students and wants to get them together. Fey’s also got her own mommy issues with Lily Tomlin (TV’s Damages), her proudly single mother. While Rudd’s own parenting of his adopted son is competing with his desire to run off to the edges of the world to do good.

It’s adapted from the novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, and the pairing of the cast and Weitz seems like a match made in heaven. Indeed, in the featurette “Early Admission With Tina Fey & Paul Rudd” on the Blu-ray, the movie is likened to Weitz’s earlier comedy film About a Boy.

There are parenting-fish-out-of-water similarities and, although Admission is no About a Boy, it’s a lot more entertaining than critics would have you believe. The movie was criticized for having too many threads and for Fey’s performance, but while she might not have the most depth, she’s perfectly entertaining, and her comedic timing is as taught as ever. Rudd’s relaxed style is a good anchor for her.

Sheen is also funny as an uptight professor, and Tomlin is strong as Fey’s feminist, gun-toting mother. Wallace Shawn (TV’s Gossip Girl) and Gloria Reuben (Lincoln) are also uniformly good.

Sadly, with the film grossing a measly $17.9 million at the box office, the Blu-ray has been largely ignored for special features. The menu offers only one extra: the afore mentioned featurette. And it’s basically a 12-minute promo piece, even starting with Fey and Rudd saying they’re going to tell us about their upcoming movie. No bloopers? No deleted scenes? Shame.

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