Jim Field Smith’s “She’s Out of My League” is another one of those comedies that you’ll be able to tell whether or not you’ll enjoy it from the opening scene. It has the kind of lowbrow humor that you would find in films like Kevin Smith’s most recent work, “Cop Out.” If you’re into that kind of humor, you might enjoy it, but for everyone else, it’s an excruciating ride from beginning to end.
Kirk (Jay Baruchel) has a job with airport security where he works with his friends Stainer (T.J. Miller), Jack (Mike Vogel), and Devon (Nate Torrence). Kirk recently broke up with his girlfriend, Marnie (Lindsay Sloane), who is now dating someone else, yet still hangs around Kirk’s family. While checking through security, Molly (Alice Eve) accidentally leaves her phone. Her friend, Patty (Krysten Ritter), calls it and Kirk answers. Molly then invites him to a party so he can bring her the phone, but, as it turns out, she actually likes him, which leads them to start dating.
In the tradition of “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” and “When in Rome,” this is nothing more than another generic comedy where you can tell from the first frame exactly what is going to happen throughout the entire film. Guy meets girl, something happens to break up the two, leaving the audience to wonder whether or not the couple will get back together again. Well, at least it leaves those who haven’t seen its many, many clones wondering that.
This film tries to spend its runtime building humor through awkward situations that either involve Kirk and his friends sitting around joking about how things are going with his girlfriend, or when Kirk is with Molly on a date. The problem with this is that all the writers, Sean Anders and John Morris, seem to know how to write is very lowbrow humor involving sex jokes, or, as they demonstrate with their lowpoint, a man shaving his privates.
The writers try this over and over again, going from one awkward situation to the next. This quickly becomes very repetitive as we sit and wait for some real humor to develop from the situation that isn’t a forced sex joke. None of it is funny, which leads to a very, very long runtime of 104 laugh-free minutes.
This all leads to a third act that completely falls apart. Earlier in the film, one of Kirk’s friends tells him of a system that rates people on a ten-point scale. Apparently Kirk is a five or a six depending on deductions. Another rule says that you cannot date someone more than two points away from you, and since they all agree that Molly is a perfect 10, there is no way their relationship can work. I wonder if the writers actually believe any of this nonsense.
As for how the third act falls apart, the film finds the silliest reason for the two to break up, using this system as part of the excuse, before the inevitable ending that we must wait for. This is one of the key problems that “Morgans” and “When in Rome” had. We know the ending, so all we’re doing is merely waiting for it to occur while the unfunny material continues to make it a painful wait.
Again, if you liked those movies and enjoy knowing exactly where it’s going, then you might like this, but those films, like “League,” suffer from a lack of originality. Writers need to start shaking things up a bit. Have the couple split up for actual reasons. Allow them to see other people or go in a whole new direction. This ending has been done. This whole film has been done. The plot is tired. Let it rest.
1.5/4 stars.
You can read this and other reviews in my column at The Richmond Examiner.