This is not this film???
Take another look at the cover. Now forget it – this film is not “that” film.
She’s out of my League is no world beater but in the genre American Pie created a decade ago it is perhaps the most enjoyable sex-comedy that I can recall since The 40 Year old Virgin 5 years ago… and way better than the lamentable American Pie.
Kirk (Jay Baruchel) is a nice doormat of a guy. He is convinced that his skinny frame and odd look mean that he is destined for a women of similar external appearance, regardless of the fact that he is actually quite a genuine and likable guy. Kirk is distraught when his long time girlfriend Marnie dumps him and takes up with a doofus of a guy named Ron, who calls Kirk “pirate” (which for some reason I found absolutely hilarious). Why would Ron even have reason to refer to Kirk at all you ask? Because Marnie gets along with Kirk’s family so well that she continues to hang around them even though she has no real link anymore.
Kirk works at airport security with a bunch of boneheaded – yet strangely realistic – guys who take every shortcut possible and indulge every opportunity to chat up anything vaguely hot that has the temerity to want to board an aircraft. Two of Kirk’s buds are fun loving, foul mouthed party dudes, and the other a chubby married guy who quotes fairytales and Disney films. Kirk’s best friend is named Stainer, who looks like Napoleon Dynamite and sounds just like Earl from My Name is Earl, Stainer is crude, rude and bizarrely self confident, he provides many of the laughs in the film through his inane and ridiculous poorly thought out statements.
Of course the title tells us that someone a little opposite will cross Kirk’s trajectory – her name is Molly and they meet when Kirk saves her the embarrassment of an overzealous strip search from a desperate and opportunistic security dork. Later when she leaves her phone behind he has reason to meet again to drop the phone off. A series of coincidences later and she asks him on a date.
What a lovely couple… and standing next to them is Kirk.
Alice Eve plays Molly and she is indeed out of Kirk’s league – and in fact out of the league of 99.78% of the known universe. There is no scene in this film when she is allowed to look anything less than a 9.87 / 10, and of course she is also funny, nice and understanding too, *SIGH*.
So a couple of dates in and Kirk realises what he is up against, it seems that Molly is successful and well liked on top of being smokin’ hot, and that almost every elite sportsman or good looking guy knows her… better than Kirk.
Of course Kirk has doubts that this will all work and keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Molly to turf him. His friends and family don’t help much either, his buddies count the seconds until he gets the arse and explain why in painstaking detail, and his family loves Molly more than they apparently love Kirk and openly wonder why she chose him.
The movie is pretty formulaic and I grew frustrated at the usual dumb and inexplicable decisions and developments, but in the main the clever dialogue and realistic characters kept me from giving up on the film.
Being a sex-comedy there are hijinks galore – nothing too graphic – although one scene has a fairly unpleasant *ahem* outcome and is particularly squirmworthy for all involved. The chatter is most definitely MA in tone and covers a wide array of off-colour topics, generally in an amusing and not too disgusting way.
I’ve already shown my lit torch for Molly but the rest of the cast are well chosen and appropriate to their roles also, Kirk’s family are a crazy hodge-podge of nutbags and lunatics, Kirk’s friends are crude but once again in a strangely naturalistic manner and Molly is effortlessly likable and understandably sought after.
I watched this film as a concession to my wife, thinking she would get something out of it, in the end she went to sleep and I continued watching and waiting for Molly to get her shirt off… to see how it would all turn out and hoping everyone would just be happy.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. In general these films really aren’t my thing, but an absence of loathsome vacuous teens, the presence of some amusing banter, and an abundance of Alice Eve make this film worth watching, even if the poster screams “avoid”.
