Movie Review: 'Admission' Pulls Lead Performers, But Needs Dismissal

In this new romantic comedy, Tina Fey plays Portia Nathan, an up-tight, single, childless (maybe, maybe not!) admissions counselor at Princeton University.

At the urging of a former college classmate, John Pressman (Paul Rudd), Portia travels to an alternative high school in New Hampshire to meet an outstanding student Jeremiah (Nat Wolff) who just may be the son she gave up when she was in college. John does everything right, while Portia, it seems, has done everything wrong.

So now we have themes colliding: professional woman who wishes for children; the idyllic setting of a school where the students milk cows, make food and practically sweat honey; the lost and found son; how to be a good person and a good parent. Speaking of parents, be sure to watch Lily Tomlin as Portia's mother--she steals the show.

"Admission" is rated PG-13 and runs 117 minutes. Check Moviefone.com for show times near you.

Here's what the critics are saying:

Except that it’s hard to imagine anyone, anywhere, at any social stratum, not being simultaneously bored and irritated by “Admission.” Actual alumni, parents and so forth of Ivy League institutions are not the audience envisioned for mainstream comedy, let’s face it, and will find this movie inane and lacking any satirical edge. And who outside that rarefied realm would even theoretically be interested in this story and its setting? Especially in an era when most of us are facing the reality that even if our kids get good grades, terrific test scores and develop cold fusion in their spare time, there’s no way on God’s green earth to pay for Princeton once they do get in. Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

"Admission" awkwardly grasps for serious feelings within all these wacky deceptions and manipulations and forces heavy, third-act emotions on us that it hasn't earned. Some of the few moments of heft come courtesy of a radiant Lily Tomlin as Portia's mother, a maverick feminist and intellectual who has forged her own notion of what it means to be both a woman and a parent, and urges her daughter to do the same. Merely the idea of Tomlin playing Fey's mom is exciting, but watching these two strong, groundbreaking comedians share the screen is one of the film's few real joys. Christy Lemire, Associated Press

As a character study of a rigid professional woman in the midst of a personal meltdown, Admission benefits from fine lead performances, deft characterization, and a solid grasp on a very specific cultural milieu. The film’s depiction of the growing mother-son bond between Fey and Wolff is funny and affecting, but while it eschews sentimentality, the film falls apart in a ramshackle, lumbering final act that’s alternately too messy and too tidy. Admission ultimately can’t quite figure out what kind of a film it wants to be, so like a lot of promising but unfocused contenders, it never quite lives up to its potential. But there’s value to be found in its meandering. Nathan Rabin, AV Club

Deftly playing Tina Fey's feminist-icon mother, Lily Tomlin all but steals Admission, a knowing but uneven comedy about the neuroticism of the college-admission process on both sides of the equation. The foibles of supposedly intelligent adult characters cause humor to erupt at odd moments throughout this quasi-farcical look at high-end academia, but director Paul Weitz betrays an erratic grip on the comic tone, and the misguided central characters emerge, in the end, as less likable than they ought to be. By its nature already limited in appeal to mostly upscale middle-aged audiences, this Focus release will be challenged to push beyond modest returns in specialized release. Hollywood Reporter

Great comic actresses — like Barbara Stanwyck or Barbra Streisand — can have a direct line to feelings we'd rather not air, or even acknowledge. Fey is on that track; her Portia is both maddening and deeply sympathetic — there's warmth behind her crispness, even if it's not the freshly baked cookie kind. If Admission were sharper, it could have been the ultimate Mother's Day movie: A picture about a non-mother who cares deeply for the next generation, even when it hasn't sprung directly from her own womb. Stephanie Zacharek, LA Weekly

This film is showing at the Movie Tavern in Tucker.