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With: Alexis Bledel, Zach Gilford, Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch, Bobby Coleman, Carol Burnett, Rodrigo Santoro, Catherine Reitman, Mary Anne McGarry, J.K. Simmons, Robert Arce, Jeanie Hackett, Oscar Dillon, Vanessa Branch, Shirley Jordan
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Written by: Kelly Fremon
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Directed by: Vicky Jenson
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual situations and brief strong language
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Running Time: 89
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Date: 08/13/2009
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Job Stories
By Jeffrey M. Anderson Alexis Bledel was a terrific straight man/straight woman on her TV show "Gilmore Girls," but she doesn't make a very interesting transition to a romantic comedy leading lady. She's better at receiving and deflecting comedy than she is at generating it. Ryden Malby (Bledel) has excelled all through high school and college, in the hopes of getting her dream job at a large Los Angeles publishing house. She doesn't get the job (and we know she won't because she starts celebrating and spending money before the interview), but for some unexplained reason she can't get any other job, either. When she's not fretting about this, she has a choice between two potential male companions, her best friend, sensitive songwriter Adam (Zach Gilford) and her sexy Brazilian neighbor David (Rodrigo Santoro); both are dull and underwritten. (Refreshingly, the movie focuses on the character's job prospects rather than the lack of men in her life.) Eventually Ryden must move back in with her family, which provides all of the film's meager laughs. Michael Keaton is back in his element as her father, with Jane Lynch as her mother and Carol Burnett -- with a few winning scenes -- as her grandmother. The movie is best when Bledel plays straight woman to these talented funnypeople, but the great majority of it is merely lazy and routine. Curiously, the very funny J.K. Simmons is totally wasted in an unfunny role as Adam's father.
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