She's Out of My League - Movie Review

If you enjoy watching grown men running around acting like overly hormonal teenagers for an hour and a half, the new “romantic comedy” She’s Out of My League is for you, if not, than I would strongly recommend seeing something else. I put “romantic comedy” in quotation marks because by the time the credits rolled, I could safely say that I found this film neither romantic nor funny. The plot consisted of a young man (Jay Baruchel), who worked as airport security, and his friends spending an entire full length movie trying to figure out why on earth the attractive, blonde party planner (Alice Eve) would ever be interested in him.

In other words, this movie catered to the male fantasy of an awkward, immature guy with a fairly unappealing job getting a gorgeous, mature woman who is, as the title states, “out of his league.” The female lead is what many might call the perfect woman. She is beautiful, and while she is smart and has a law degree, she won’t outshine her male counterpart, as she gave up law to plan parties. Not only does she look good, but she has no problem helping the man make his brothers and ex-girlfriend jealous by objectifying herself! Also, while she spends a significant portion of the movie trying to convince the male lead that she does, in fact, have flaws, aside from a barely noticeable and definitely not deal breaking physical abnormality, none of these flaws are ever explained or shown on screen. I, however, would argue that her greatest defect is her complete and utter lack of substance. As for the supporting female characters, they are mean, abrasive and for the most part, shallow, easy and unintelligent…yet the men are worse.

While the film attempts a male lead who is socially and physically awkward, yet kind and charmingly nerdy – a role which has worked well in previous romantic comedies such as Say Anything and 10 Things I Hate About You, the character falls short, coming across as immature and weak opposed to charismatic. After watching him for five minutes, it was completely shocking that any woman, even one lacking substance and personality, would want to be with him. Alongside the main role, the supporting male characters are oafish, disgusting and about as likeable as overcooked broccoli. They act like idiots and their conversation is rife with age inappropriate references spanning from cartoon Disney films to Hannah Montana. All things considered, it is unfathomable as to how, based on their intelligence and maturity levels, any of them were able to obtain a driver’s license, let alone a job or girlfriend.

Throughout the course of this movie, the characters spend a great deal of time ranking human beings on a points system of one to ten, giving and taking points for things such as appearance, job, car, etc. In the theme of this game, I will start by giving the cast and crew ten points for managing to get their movie into theaters nationwide. I will then proceed to deduct one point each for the unoriginal plot, lack of character substance, uninteresting character interaction, mediocre acting, overall immaturity, weak script and failed attempt to be funny. This leaves She’s Out of My League with only three points out of ten, all of which are attributed to the overwhelming sense of relief I felt when the film finally ended.