Today’s Prayer Focus

Girl Most Likely

MPA Rating: PG-13-Rating (MPA) for sexual content and language.
Moral Rating: not reviewed
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Comedy
Length: 1 hr. 43 min.
Year of Release: 2013
USA Release: July 19, 2013 (wide—353 theaters)
DVD: November 5, 2013
Copyright, Lionsgateclick photos to ENLARGE Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate
Relevant Issues
Copyright, Lionsgate dealing with the personal emotions of failure

personal humiliation

loving and accepting family

fornication in the Bible

Featuring Kristen WiigImogene
Annette BeningZelda
Matt DillonGeorge/The Bousche
Bob BalabanMaxwell
Darren Criss … Lee
Christopher Fitzgerald … Ralph
June Diane Raphael … Dara
Natasha Lyonne … Allyson
See all »
Director Shari Springer Berman
Robert Pulcini
Producer Maven Pictures
Anonymous Content
See all »
Distributor
Distributor: Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Trademark logo.
Lionsgate
(Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.)

“She has a lot to live up to. And a few things to live down.”

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “Former American President Calvin Coolidge once postulated that his country’s most common commodity is unrealized potential. Few of us can claim not to possess it, but it takes a special sort of underachiever to match the feats of Imogene (Kristen Wiig), a playwright once thought to be destined for greatness, but who has spent most of her twenties and thirties frittering away her talent and opportunities. As Imogene begins, she's just about hit bottom, having staged a suicide attempt in a desperate bid to hold on to her philandering boyfriend—it's about the only thing she's staged in a very long time. And it's not a hit.

Things can only go up from here, and they do in this wildly quirky and weirdly optimistic comic character study. After her fake suicide attempt, Imogene is remanded to the custody of her mother (Annette Bening), a blowsy, overbearing gambling addict with a friendly but somewhat seedy goof of a boyfriend (Matt Dillon) who claims to be working for the CIA. This unexpected homecoming forces Imogene to confront her lingering feelings about her long-dead father, but it also finds her developing a surprising intimacy with her mother's lodger, the much-younger Lee (Darren Criss), a singer currently exhibiting his talents in a Backstreet Boys cover band. Lee would seem anything but substantial on the surface, yet his sincerity and intelligence is arresting, and he may be just what the doctor ordered for our recovering heroine.”

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See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


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Movie Critics
…a game cast goes to waste in this scattershot comedy about a failed playwright… What the Girl Most Likely lacks is the heart of any good comedy, no matter how silly: the ability to evoke a sense of empathy. … [2/4]
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald
…lacks spark… “Girl Most Likely” is flat and mostly unsurprising. … [2/4]
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
…‘Girl Most Likely’ mostly draws blanks… lazy comedy… I only laughed once… [1/4]
Sara Stewart, New York Post
…succeeds only in missing the mark… humor is glaringly absent in every corner of this saga. … [½/4]
Claudia Puig, USA Today
…doesn’t make use of Kristen Wiig’s comic skills…
Duane Dudek, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
…rings hollow… the film veers between forced farce and tired rom-com staples and doesn't feel true. …
Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times
…you wait in vain for the funny to pop… A forced, laugh-challenged comedy…
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
…An appealing cast adds some witty moments to a tone-shifting comedy about the great New York/New Jersey divide. …
Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter

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