User Reviews

This movie has some good bones but what's in between isn't that great. The dialog and situations could have been funnier. A Manhattan writer gets laid off and has to go back home to New Jersey for a while.

The cast is funny and likable especially the supporting cast. Annette Benning does well as the mother with impulse control problems. Matt Dillon is always a great comedic actor and he plays Annette's boyfriend. Kristin Wiig is good but her character she plays isn't terribly sympathetic or lovable. Darren Criss of Glee plays a lodger in Annette's Ocean City home and sings a bit.

The contrast of the culture difference between arty Manhattan and Ocean City NJ is funny and could have been played up more.

Overall worth one watch for the cast but it is a little lacking in laughs.

'GIRL MOST LIKELY': Four Stars (Out of Five)

Kristen Wiig stars in this comedy film directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (the team behind the Harvey Pekar biography comedy film 'AMERICAN SPLENDOR'). It was written by Michelle Morgan and co-stars Annette Bening, Matt Dillon, Christopher Fitzgerald and Darren Criss. Wiig plays a New York playwright who's fallen on hard times and fakes her suicide in order to try and win her ex-boyfriend back. She instead ends up having to move back home with her mother and little brother. The movie got mostly negative reviews and didn't receive a wide theatrical release but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The film was originally titled 'Imogene', which is the name of Wiig's character. Imogene was an up and coming New York playwright who's career went nowhere quickly and she ends up losing her job and her boyfriend, Peter (Brian Petsos), at the same time. In an attempt to win Peter back she stages her suicide but is instead ordered to move back in with her mother, Zelda (Bening), and younger brother, Ralph (Fitzgerald), temporarily. Once home she finds her mother is also living with a man claiming to be a secret agent (Dillon), who she's also hooking up with, and a young man named Lee (Criss), who rented out her old room. Things just get more crazy from there as she attempts to get her life back on track.

The film was very nicely directed and the script is clever and smart. I found all the characters to be likable and oddly enjoyable as well as adequately developed. Wiig is a good leading lady and I enjoy her in films like this much more than something like 'BRIDESMAIDS'. Criss and Fitzgerald (who plays a character which seems like it was written for Zach Galifianakis) both stand out in the movie as well and Bening and Dillon are also hilarious in it. The movie is just a really quirky and funny heartfelt film. I'm not sure why it hasn't gotten better recognition but it's definitely one worth seeing.

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"Girl Most Likely" is Imogene (Kristen Wiig); a girl once likely to become the next big playwright in New York City, now she's desperately hanging on to the upper-class lifestyle convinced that it's all about who you know, where you live, and who you are with. A failed attempt of a fake suicide attempt sends Imogene back where she came from. All the way to New Jersey.

It's an indie film with a fairly minimal distribution, which generally means the film is going to try to survive on quirky comedy. Luckily, Wiig has had a decade's worth of experience doing quirky comedy on "Saturday Night Live". Also, luckily the film is more than just a quirky indie comedy. It's very much a character study, and a bit of a quarter- life crisis dramedy thrown in for good measure. Imogene doesn't know herself very well. She once knew she was a good writer, now she just thinks she's a good writer. She once knew she was better than the family she came from, now she just thinks she's better. She also thinks her life will be better if she gets to know her great and successful father whom she doesn't know.

Her home life features comedy from her weird and bizarre mother, Zelda, her weirder and more bizarre new-step-father-like figure, George, and her weird but well-intentioned younger brother, Ralph. There's also a strange man sleeping in her bed.

This strange man is Lee (Darren Criss), who is actually not strange at all. He is a young man mired in a quarter-life crisis who has rented out her room as a place to stay. He represents the romantic angle of Imogene's attempt to get her life back on track, and was actually a very welcome addition to the movie. Lee was much more sane, understanding, and more aware of his place in life than any of the characters. He was exactly the type of guy who could keep Imogene more grounded with her distorted life views.

The comedy is sweet, although at times it can become to quirky to be all that funny. The writing is good, even though at times it can be a little too self-aware to be all the great. But "Girl Most Likely" is a fairly enjoyable journey of a girl who has completely lost her way in life. It focuses on family, ambition and ties it all up with quirky comedy.

The myth of Thanksgiving, the American-dream dissected, shattered, and taken apart, or is it?

This film is set in two cities. One city is New York City. The other is Ocean City in New Jersey, on the opposite side of the Hudson River.

Lead actress Kristen Wiig plays Imogene. A difficult role to play, because Imogene is not really very nice at all. She is a New York-socialite and is arrogant, demanding, and generally unpleasant. Film opens with her in NY with her rich boyfriend, flat and job.

This self-centred woman has a massive change in circumstances which end up forcing her to return to her family in Ocean City. Thus film opens like 'Hope Floats' (1998). Like Sandra Bullock in that film, Imogene has to return home, having not fulfilled her expectations.

Now socialite Imogene has left glamorous NY and returns to a more working-class Ocean City, and her working-class family. Annette Bening, of 'Ruby Sparks' (2012), plays her mother. An unrecognizable Matt Dillon plays a boyfriend. However, the real stand out performance, is by Christopher Fitzgerald, who plays brother Ralph.

The problems and the disputes in the family are shown realistically, as are the interactions between the members of the family. The scenes between brother and sister capture the relationship perfectly. The pair have grown up together, two kids, brother and sister, still always kids with each other.

The contrast between the two cities of NY, and Ocean City, is shown well. In this, film is similar to 'Working Girl' (1988), 'Silver Linings Playbook' (2012) or 'The Heat' (2013). Nathan Corddry of 'Harry's Law', like in 'The Heat', here too makes a brief appearance. Class-differences and family-differences are portrayed well.

The Theo Paphitis autobiography has a jaw-dropping page one. This film has a similar jaw-dropping twist. There is also a funny twist reminiscent of 'Ruthless People' (1986).

This is a funny film about the family and the American-dream. Rated 12A in the UK, this film is about the family, but is not a film for the whole family. Two people are seen in bed, not sleeping, and thus 12+ would be a good age guide.

While 'Working Girl' portrayed a rise, this film is more about a fall, and a return home. However some great music, book-ends this film, rather like the 'WG' film.

Film contains comedy, drama and some romance. 9/10.

After watching this film, my girlfriend said, "ya know, thebest way to enjoy a movie is to go into it with no expectations.

Well, that's how we viewed this. It was a late rental, from a kiosk, and we picked it based on the box figuring it would be "something light and fun" because it had Kristen Wig. Oddly, it got too late to watch anything until the next day, and boy I'm glad we waited.

Much of the description is in the synopsis of this film. I call it a "film" because it is just that - it's not your typical Hollywood comedy of breakup, or heartache, or going for cheap laughs. Nor is it a tug on your heartstrings predictable drama. Instead this film has the perfect mix, and warm story of an independent film, with some, but not too many quirky family relationships, and real, flawed love story, with family, friendships...some hope, some heartache.

I'm used to seeing Kristin Wig in silly comedic roles - in this, Wig, Benning, Matt Dylan, et. al are all outstanding...just watch it. Warm, warm film.

This is a film for anyone who has been or knows a struggling artist. It's fantastic and at times a laugh-out-loud funny movie with a charming cast. Kristen Wiig is great and Darren Criss has never looked hotter. Easy to watch and fun and relatable on many levels.

Being a fan of Kristin Wiig, I was excited for this movie. Then it was barely marketed, quietly released, poorly reviewed, and flopped. I don't understand.

Kristin Wiig plays Imogene, a neurotic and insecure woman unsuccessfully trying to make it as a writer in NYC. The character is very similar to the one she played in Bridesmaids....which is OK with me. I was more than happy to spend more time with this woman.

After faking a suicide attempt to get her ex boyfriend's attention, Imogene winds up in the hospital. She is subsequently released to the custody of her mother played by Annette Bening who is simply terrific playing a character who reminded me of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.

Imogene returning to the tacky and dysfunctional home in New Jersey where she grew up makes for the comedy here. There are many laugh out loud moments. Living in the house is her mother's boyfriend George Boosh! (Matt Dillon) who claims to work for the CIA, her somewhat mentally challenged but sweet younger brother, and a border played by a very appealing Darren Criss whom Imogene develops an interest in.

There may be a bit too much going on in this film. A subplot of Imogene trying to find her biological father doesn't do too much to move the story along. The ending also goes way over the top. But ultimately, Kristin Wiig makes Imogene a flawed yet lovable character who we root for. I left the theater in a great mood.

I've never reviewed a movie here before, but I'm doing it because most of what I've seen online and in my local paper were at best tepid, if not downright negative. Frankly, it is a much better comedy of manners than "Bridesmaids" was-- that one relied far too heavily on the Judd Apatow gross-out factor. (As if proving that women could be as stupid as men is some kind of feminist triumph.) Wiig's skill-- and the terrific Annette Bening's, as well-- is to tread the fine line between comic sketch exaggeration and the rueful comedy in the human condition. One of the better comedies I've seen in awhile, and deserves spreading the good word.

I was excited to see this movie based on the trailer, but I was also worried because I saw initial reviews claiming it wasn't really very funny. There was nothing to worry about.

I know I wasn't alone in that theater in laughing out loud really loudly because it was just that funny! I was one of my favorite movie-going experiences in recent memory because the whole audience was together for the ride and thoroughly enjoying it. For that reason alone, I recommend seeing it in theaters, if possible. If not, do watch it with friends when it's out on video. It was funny even when it was sad and touching. The relationships between all of the characters are interesting and develop throughout the film, and everyone does a splendid job. It left me both happy and contemplative.

Gave the movie a go thinking it would be just something to do before going to bed - well, it was an amazing movie!! Couldn't sleep till the end, and actually in the very end, when you know it is about to finish, I really wanted to see more. More story, more of that crazy quirky life, a really cool, interesting, smart, funny and somewhat deep movie.

The story is really interesting and the cast, well they all play excellent roles where they fit perfectly!

It makes you laugh and even cry, makes you think about life and on the stuff you go through on daily basis. A really feel-good movie.

A really well done flick, not a crap-Hollywood-fill-in-sandwich

Excellent!

I went to see this movie in Paris last night for a premiere, though it was called Imogene. I was inclined to go not because of the story line but that Kirsten Wiig and Darren Criss were doing a Q & A after the showing. That was worth seeing the movie in itself, but I was very pleased with the film.

It may not be a movie you want to spend $10 on a viewing at the cinema but it is very much worth seeing. The dialogue was well written, the characters you grew to care about very quickly. Though, Kirsten has done a movie where her life has gone out of control and she has to get back on her feet, i.e. Bridesmaids, this did feel different. Christopher Fitzgerald as Ralph did brilliantly and often steals whatever scene he's in. Darren Criss does a great job and proves he doesn't need to be typecast he has much more range than you've seen on Glee.

I highly recommend catching this movie at some point and for those who wait for DVD its worth renting for sure.

"Girl Most Likely" is one of the best comedies I've seen in years. In the spirit of "Crossing Delancey," the film tells the story of a single woman who has turned her back on her nearby humble roots for the Manhattan literary scene. But instead of the Lower East Side and a traditional Jewish upbringing, it's Ocean City, New Jersey and a dysfunctional Jersey-shore family that our heroine, Imogene (Kristen Wiig), thinks she's left behind. And whereas both films are romantic comedies, the emphasis in "Delancey" is romance and the emphasis in "Girl" is on comedy.

Unlike many recent comedies, such as "Bridesmaids" and "The Hangover," "Girl" doesn't turn to gross-out humor for its laughs, but generates them from character, dialogue, timing and visuals that are so cleverly thought-out that Wiig's mom's (Annettte Bening) Ocean City house becomes yet another outlandish character at which we are invited to laugh.

Matt Dillon gives his best comedic performance since "There's Something About Mary," Christopher Fitzgerald gives a sweet, memorable performance as Imogene's brother, Ralph, and Darren Criss does a star turn as boy-band singer covering the Back Street Boys in one of the shore's more pathetic lounges.

Wiig and Benning give the most remarkable performances. Benning's Jersey-accented portrayal of Imogene's gambling-addicted, credulous mom is a delight made more so because it's her delivering it. Wiig has finally found material more nuanced than the broad humor she is known for. Would that screenwriter Michelle Morgan had come along ten years earlier, because Wiig's career might have taken an entirely different arc.

Finally, the wife-and-husband directing team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini may be the best thing that's happened to romantic comedy since Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron teamed up to give us "When Harry Met Sally." With "American Splendor" and HBO's "Cinema Verité" in their oeuvre, I will be interested to see what this versatile duo comes up with next.

There is a genre of film - this one and Switch come to mind - that depict the denizens of New York City as absurdly neurotic fast-talkers who can't seem to find happiness but who, you realize as the movie hits the 5-minute mark, are all secretly pleased about their excruciating personalities and their irrelevant lives. Pleased. Pleased, when they should be looking in the mirror and telling themselves to snap out of it and get over themselves.

I am here to tell you that these movie characters are all figments of some writer's lazy imagination. Do not be afraid to move to New York, it's a lovely place with all kinds of nice people. If you move there - specifically, to the island of Manhattan, either east of west of Central Park or points south - you will find that if you love the city, it will love you back. It's as simple as that. And I promise you will never meet idiots like the preposterous fictions in these movies.

Girl Most Likely is full of potential and just like it's heroin, a lot is expected from it. It's a great set up with an amazing cast but where it has all those strengths- it's weaknesses are equal if not stronger.

The film follows Imogene (Kristen Wiig), an unlikable whining 30 year old woman- child. Once a successful up and coming playwright, Imogene is in a major slump. After a fake suicide attempt she is released by the hospital into the hands of her gambling addicted mother (Annette Bening). Imogene is taken against her will from the comforts of New York to where she grew up, a New Jersey boardwalk town, that she hates with a passion. There she finds her mother is dating a younger man who may or may not be a CIA agent (Matt Dillon) and meets an even younger man (Darren Criss) who is renting out her childhood bedroom. When Imogene and her younger brother Ralph (Christopher Fitzgerald) find out their long deceased father is actually alive and well, Imogene makes it her goal to find and reunite with him.

From the get go Girl Most Likely tries to instill in your brain what it is like to be Imogene by some shabby point of view camera work. In fact most of the visual appeal of the film really just rests on the expressive and handsome shoulders of young up and comer Darren Criss who, as the sexy happy go- lucky Lee, represents what Imogene should aspire to be but fails to become.

Wiig, who is known for her eccentric and outrageous characters (Saturday Night Live, Bridesmaids) plays the straight man to Imogene's kooky family. She does not do well as the straight man in this film. Imogene is grumpy, selfish and irrational. She uses her own self sabotaged failure as an excuse to be awful to her family and friends.

Dillon and Bening (The Kids Are All Right) do their best caricatures of their characters, but never really get past the shtick. However, Fitzgerald does a fine job as Imogene's sweet "special" adult brother Ralph, he is so innocently wide eyed and optimistic that you could hate Imogene for not coming to visit in years.

To be fair, there are many funny moments in Girl Most Likely. Awkward laugh out loud gold moments. The film keeps going back and forth between outrageous comedy to slow burning indie, making it an uneven ride. It's about Imogene growing up and learning to love the family she has and not the one she thinks they should be- and she does learn to love them but it's not enough. She has larger issues and the ending doesn't feel resolved for her or an audience who spends 103 minutes trying to root for her.

Other than "The Heat," there haven't been that many movies this summer that are actually about women. Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening are at the top of their came in this movie, and it's such a pleasure to just watch funny ladies being funny.

It's one of those movies about a quirky family, but with enough fresh elements to make it work. The best thing about the film is the top-notch cast. Darren Criss is utterly charming in his first big-screen role, which is no small task considering that his character works as a Backstreet Boy impersonator. This guy is obviously going places.

It's definitely worth checking out, on DVD if you can't find it in a theater.

I'm not really a Kristin Wiig fan, so I wasn't the target audience for this comedy. But for the sake of Matt Dillon, I gave Girl Most Likely a chance. He was my favorite part of the movie, a hilarious CIA agent named George Bousche (or is he?) dating the much older and clearly unbalanced Annette Bening. The apple didn't really fall far from Annette's tree: Kristin is her daughter and has severe emotional problems and bad judgment. In an attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend's affections, she pretends to attempt suicide. It backfires, and instead, the law commands her to stay with her mother for her own safety.

The vast majority of the movie is about Kristin, her antics, her odd friendships and her attempt to accept her life the way it is rather than the way she wished it would be. If you like her humor, you'll probably really like this movie. In spite of myself, I laughed far more times than I thought I would. I still would have liked it better if the delightful and charming Annette and Matt had the most screen time, with Kristin a small slice of the story.

Focused on Imogene (Kristen Wiig) things spiral when her so called boyfriend breaks up with her, she loses her job and nearly commits suicide leading to Annette Bennings the mom having to take Imogene to her childhood home. This movie is great for what it is although I understand why it's low rated but it's got a nice home vibe to it. Girl Most Likely is better than I expected defiantly more of a drama in the bulk of it but has a few funny parts. Ralph is an awesome character I like how quirky he is. I've had this movie on several watchlists glad it came on live HBO comedy, this movie grew on me and I appreciate more after the first viewing.