Admissions

A film review by Christopher Null - Copyright © 2005 Filmcritic.com

Some kids are so disaffected that they can't even be bothered to take their college admissions interviews seriously. Oh, they can fill out the paperwork, but ask them to answer a question about what they want to be when they grow up, and they'll sabatoge it.

Lauren Ambrose stars in this strange and often baffling story of a girl, her mentally disabled sister, and a mother who ignores the former and dotes on the latter. Faced with going to college, Admissions tells us that Lauren shouldn't care because mom (Amy Madigan) doesn't care about Lauren. Admittedly, mom could give the redhead a little more face time, but she truly does have her hands full dealing with the other one (Taylor Roberts -- who gives the least believable "special" performance in history).

As the film careens into a bizarre third act -- which finds Roberts invited to recite her poetry on TV, which turns out to be written by Ambrose (!!!!) -- we've long since given up on caring about poor Lauren's college ambitions.

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Rating

3.0 out of 5 Stars

Cast and Crew

  • Director: Melissa Painter
  • Producer: Annette Vait
  • Screenwriter: Dawn O'Leary
  • Stars: Fran Kranz, Lauren Ambrose, Christopher Lloyd, Amy Madigan, Taylor Roberts, John Savage
  • MPAA Rating: PG