Kristin Wiig (Bridesmaids, The Skeleton Twins) got off to a bit of a late start in her movie career. Still, the hilarious Saturday Night Live alum is making up for lost time and immersing herself in as many unique roles as possible. The funniest female cast member in SNL history isn’t letting herself become typecast, like so many of her predecessors (male and female), by starring in full-length versions of the skits she performed on television. In recent years, many alumni (especially women like Amy Poehler and Tina Fey) have established themselves as legit, in-it-for-the-long-run actors, writers, directors, and producers. Many of the three names mentioned in this paragraph will rank the talents as 1) Fey, 2) Poehler, and 3) Wiig. I may be in the minority, but I say Wiig is my favorite of the three, followed closely by Fey. For me, while super-talented, Poehler is a distant third.
Welcome to Me is Wiig’s weirdest role and the first one she starred in alone. Sure, she had a pretty incredible ensemble to work with, but make no bones about it; this was Wiig’s movie for better or worse. And for the most part, she passed with flying colors. This movie didn’t do so well at the box office (less than half a million dollars), but I’m not sure that was the expectation. However, it did score well with critics (70% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and will likely help Wiig land future roles that allow her to continue to showcase her acting prowess. Unfortunately, Wiig was the best part of the overly hyped, incredibly disappointing The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. She’s had bit parts in some good movies like Her, Date Night, and Adventureland, but it’s about time she got more recognition and more opportunities as a leading lady. Will that happen? Time will undoubtedly tell. Her performances in these recent movies show that she’s as good as anyone else in Hollywood.
In Welcome to Me, Wiig stars as Alice Klieg, a seemingly good woman doing her best while battling a borderline personality disorder. She’s obsessed with herself and with Oprah. She wants to be Oprah. And she gets that chance when she wins $80 million in the lottery. Against the advice of her psychiatrist, Daryl (Tim Robbins – Mystic River, The Shawshank Redemption), Alice quits her psychiatric medication and uses her money to buy her own talk show. The studio charges her $150,000 per episode, and she signs on for 100 episodes. And as awful as her show is, money is money. Alice’s show (entitled Welcome to Me) is her talking about whatever topics she wants to discuss. She has a small studio audience. She sings her own introduction. She enters on a swan boat. She has no experience on television and is not interested in coaching. She is there to talk about herself, and the format she wants to follow is similar to Oprah’s. She spends five long minutes savoring a meatloaf cake with sweet potato icing that she just baked in one segment. In the back, one of the show’s producers asks another, “Does Alice want us to watch her eat for an hour?” to which another person replies, “No, but she did say that this will take a legitimate five minutes of the show.” It is awkward moments like this that drive the film.
Many would see Wiig’s Alice as narcissistic. It’s straightforward to do. She is very absorbed in herself. But if you look deeper and can identify with Borderline Personality Disorder, you’ll see that while a lot of this may seem very egocentric, she cannot help it. Being off her medication portrays her in an even more negative light. Many regular moviegoers will hate it. I would have been disappointed to see this on the big screen, which is ironic, because Cake, a movie starring Jennifer Aniston in her prototypical role, was one I was happy to see in the theater. Unlike Cake, though, which was much easier to classify as a drama mixed in with a bit of comedy, Welcome to Me was just a different, almost unidentifiable type of film. For whatever reason, I am comparing Welcome to Me with movies like Lars and the Real Girl (which I loved) and Frank (which I did not).
Plot 9/10 (unique and refreshing)
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 7/10
80%
C+
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