Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening in 'Girl Most Likely'

2 Stars

Set in Atlantic City and New York City, viewed metaphorically here as Oz and Kansas, respectively, "Girl Most Likely" goes a little bit wrong in nearly every scene, its stridently quirky characters never quite making sense together in the same universe, let alone the same movie.

At least the people playing the quirks masquerading as people have talent.

Kristin Wiig, our national standard-bearer for droll comic insecurity, plays Imogene, the sad sack at the center, a once-promising, now-languishing New York playwright who fakes a suicide attempt after a break-up and ends up in the wobbly custody of Zelda, her Atlantic City mother (Annette Bening).

Imogene's childhood home is now a boarding house; the hunkiest and most conveniently available of the guys is a Backstreet Boy impersonator portrayed by Darren Criss.

The motifs in Michelle Morgan's script relate, with dogged repetition, to the notion of going home again and coming out of one's shell. The shell's literal in the case of Imogene's shut-in brother (Christopher Fitzgerald, too adorable by half), who spends much of the film wearing a human-sized version of a crustacean exoskeleton. This comes in handy when a Romanian mobster shows up, in pursuit of Zelda's alleged CIA op boyfriend (Matt Dillon), in a climax of unusually clumsy slapstick.

Imogene, a failed New York playwright, is awkwardly navigating the transition from Next Big Thing to Last Year's News. After her career and relationship hit the skids, she moves back home to New Jersey with her eccentric mother and younger brother.

 

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for language and sexual content)

Running time: 1:43

Cast: Kristen Wiig (Imogene); Annette Bening (Zelda); Matt Dillon (George).

Credits: Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini; written by Michelle Morgan; produced by Mark Amin Alix Madigan, Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler. A Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions release.

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'Girl Most Likely' Movie Review - Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening