She's Out of My League

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Wearing its heart proudly on its sleeve, Jim Field Smith’s She’s Out of My League is a charming and unassuming feature that surprises moment after moment with its sweet unisex appeal and comedic touches.  Pleasant and swiftly moving, the movie aces as a romantic comedy despite its formulaic outline and wins over its audience with its knuckleheaded likeability.

Written by Sean Anders and John Morris, She’s Out of My League tells the story of Kirk Kettener’s (a charismatic Jay Baruchel) unexpected interest from knockout Molly McCleish (Alice Eve).  Described as a “hard 5” in the looks department, Kettener’s friends and family question his senses – especially when they see her.  Soon enough, Kirk’s own self-esteem takes a beating as he questions Molly’s own interests.  Co-starring T.J. Miller, Nate Torrance, Mike Vogal, Lindsay Sloan (as Marnie, Kirk’s old girlfriend) and Krysten Ritter, Smith’s film finds enough room to allow for some riffing and improvisation without being gross our entirely just-for-guys humor.

A huge part of the film’s overall success stems from the permanent oddball charm of its leading man, Baruchel.  Finally taking the reigns in his own film, Tropic Thunder and Knocked Up’s scene-stealer Baruchel’s turn at leading man is a royal cinematic treat for longtime well-wishers.  Once featured as lead in Judd Apatow’s Undeclared television show, Baruchel immediately jumps off the screen with dynamic subversion and subtleties as he is presented with the bad advice he receives from his friends.  It’s an opening scene that works both in showcasing Baruchel’s talents as an actor and as time-saving character development as we see just how far down in the hole Kirk’s self-esteem is.  While this character could have easily been annoying (especially as described here), Baruchel sweeps in time and time again to present a layered earnestness to his character that garners him major bank in personality points.

Also of note is Alice Eve’s sweetly innocent performance as Molly.  Both smart and sexy, Eve develops her character with a fine degree of intelligence so that the audience’s preconceived notions about her character’s motives are consistently knocked down; it is a surprising and well-thought performance that is fully engaged and entertaining.  Ultimately, Eve’s wowing in the role turns a possibly one-note scripted character into a full flesh and blood performance.

Frequently funny and visually different, She’s Out of My League strikes gold as a perfect balance between romance and comedy without going overboard in either category.  Anyone who passes this off as completely formulaic and uninspired material, quite simply, isn’t paying close enough attention to the film’s beating heart.  Surrounded by solid material in comedic and capable hands, Baruchel and company deliver a fine feature that is as surprising as it is earnest.


Component Grades
Movie
DVD
4 stars
4 stars
DVD Experience
4 stars

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - June 8, 2010
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles
: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1; Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)

Paramount’s Blu-ray presents the film in DTS-HD 5.1.  The colors on the transfer are warm and natural, resulting in a fine-looking Blu-ray.  The Blu-ray comes with a rather dry commentary (full of only the tiniest of tidbits) by British director Smith. If you keep the film running after the credits, there’s a small treat, lasting about 2 minutes, where audience members who saw a screening ranked each other in the "looks" department, and then there’s the 7 minute “Devon’s Dating Show!” in which Nate Torrance alongside co-star Kyle Bornheimer make jokes about dating tips.  Grossly unfunny, it’s a good thing that these lines were left out of the movie.  There are also five deleted scenes (4 min.) with optional director commentary, some of the scenes are quite funny and could have easily been included had this been an unrated feature.  Wrapping up the Blu-ray is a six-minute blooper reel that, while funny, is largely unnecessary with the material of the feature.

Supplements:

Commentary Track:

  • Audio Commentary with with Director Jim Field Smith.

Featurettes:

  • Devon's Dating Show! (1080p, 7:28)
  • Blooper reel (1080p, 6:20)

Deleted Scenes: A collection of four deleted scenes and an extended ending

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