Girl Most Likely follows the story of Imogene (Kristen Wiig), a struggling New York City playwright, who decides to stage a fake suicide when her boyfriend breaks up with her. When this desperate attempt to get him back fails, the doctor puts her under the care of her mom with who Imogene hasn’t spoken to in years. Imogene thinks this is a punishment worse than death and must learn to reconnect with her broken family.
Imogene’s family is quite interesting. Her mother, Zelda (Annette Bening), is a New Jersey gambling addict who has a live-in boyfriend named “George Bush” (pronounced boo-sh) (Matt Dillon), who supposedly works for the FBI. Her brother, Ralph (Christopher Fitzgerald), is a hermit in all senses of the world: he avoids external social contact at all costs and also owns a hermit crab shop on the beach. And, while not a family member, there’s Lee (Darren Criss), a casino singer who is renting out Imogene’s old room.
And it goes on from there.
The best I can describe this movie is a more modern-day Napoleon Dynamite, except not as funny or delightful. At times I thought, “Wow, there really could be a family like this somewhere in New Jersey.” And other times, the plot and scenarios were so bizarre and crazy you just had to laugh about it.
Kristen Wiig is a true comedic actress and whenever she’s on screen, she steals the show. But unfortunately, this screenplay didn’t give Wiig a lot to work with. The character of Imogene is a bit despicable and you don’t really root for her.
Honestly, I was excited to see Darren Criss in one of his first big screen appearances, but he also fell a bit flat…except for the part where he sings.
Bizarre, quirky, and somewhat funny. If you’re a Kristen Wiig or Darren Criss fan, you might want to check Girl Most Likely out, otherwise, you skip it and you won’t be missing much.
★★
