Inverting traditional male-female roles with a dreary lack
of imagination, She’s Out of My League
tells the guy-friendly romantic comedy tale of ugly-duckling airport security
agent Kirk (regular Judd Apatow player Jay Baruchel), who inadvertently winds
up in a relationship with super-hot party planner Molly (Alice Eve). Kirk’s
self-consciousness about this romance is amplified by Molly’s hunky ex Cam
(Geoff Stults) and a cadre of smart-ass friends who reinforce the notion that
Kirk is a 5 and Molly is a “hard 10.” Throw in Kirk’s wacky family and his
awful former flame (Lindsay Sloane), and you’ve got a scenario ripped straight
from a screenwriting computer program. Director Jim Field Smith hits every
predictable note in the genre’s playbook while attempting to deliver some bawdy
dude humor, which here takes the dismal guise of a running joke about premature
ejaculation (and a dog!) as well as another gag involving one man cheerily
shaving another’s testicles. No amount of faux-smuttiness, however, can
disguise the squishy kissy-poo template that guides these male-fantasy
proceedings, which are so formulaic that the film actually ends with the lamest
rom-com cliché of all – the race through the airport to find true love – and,
as such, proves to be in the exact same league as the so-called “chick flicks”
of Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock.
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