Synopsis: Kristen Wiig, Annette Benning, Matt Dillon, Darren Criss, Shari Springer Berman (dir.),
Robert Pulcini (dir.)

Certificate: 12A (PG-13)

Rating: 7/10

Overall: A funny and heart-warming film about family, love and acceptance. Even though I'm definitely biased, Darren Criss's Lee steals the show.

View the trailer here.

Girl Most Likely (GML) is a film I've been keeping an eye on for a while for one very simple reason: Darren Criss. I'm not going to beat around the bush; I went to see this film because of him. And it has finally come out here in the UK.

Girl Most Likely is about a woman named Imogene (pronounced
E-mo-jean, played by Kristen Wiig) who pretends to commit suicide after her boyfriend dumps her. This pretend suicide results in Imogene being put under the care of her mother.

This setup for the main thrust of the film - rediscovering her love for her family and learning to accept them as they are - is quite frankly ridiculous, and paints the character of Imogene in a distinctly unflattering light. But despite this start, Imogene's internal battle of her own distaste for her madcap family against her love for them reveals itself slowly ending in a character I liked.

The other characters in Imogene's family: Zelda (Imogene's mum, Annette Benning), George Bush (Zelda's boyfriend, Matt Dillon), and Ralph (Imogene's brother, Christopher Fitzgerald) present an immediate impression of insanity, obviously used to make Imogene look relatively sane in spite of the circumstances. While I enjoyed their madcap ways, sometimes it felt like there was a lack of familial affection to really help drive the point of the story home.

There was another person living in the house, Lee (Darren Criss). Lee is a lodger that Zelda has taken on, and he is living in Imogene's old room. Imogene definitely does not like the fact that her mum has apparently just given her room away to any old stranger, but Lee gives her someone who is both inside and outside this family, and is 'normal'. Lee also helps Imogene let loose a little, and brings the romance side of things to the table. I may be biased but I think Criss was one of the best things in the film, and he really did a good job for his first feature film. Lee's tribute band performance of the Backstreet Boys caused the biggest laughs in the theatre! I also thought it was pretty meta that Lee used to be a Whiffenpoof...

I did really enjoy Girl Most Likely. It brought plenty of laughs, and was rather heart-warming in the end. I think the premise and the missing family bonds let it down a bit for me.