She's Out of My League (2010)

Kirk is an average Joe who works as a TSA agent at the Pittsburgh airport with his friends. The status quo of his fairly monotonous life ends when he meets Molly, a smart, kind and gorgeous blonde. Because she's way out of his league (she's a hard 10 and he is but a 5), Kirk knows there's no way on earth she's ever going to fall for him. Or is there...?

I expected a raunchy, silly sex comedy, but "She's Out of My League" was a actually a funny and sweet romantic comedy that is a bit smarter than the ads let on. Jay Baruchel plays Kirk, a genuine nice guy thats a bit down on his luck in the love department. Alice Eve is Molly, a Hard 10 on the scale of hotness, looking for someone nice and a bit safe after her last breakup. A chance meeting at an airport sets up the two on a date. When the pair start dating, their friends start wondering if the two can last since there is such a space between the tow At best Kirk is a 6... What happens could have been a by the numbers comedy, but the smart scripts works, and the cast is excellent. The supporting players make this movie work really well and the two leads are perfect in their roles. Alice Eve is very pretty, but has the acting chops to make you really like her character. Jay Baruchel is becoming one of my favorite actors. Between his voice work on How to Train your Dragon, and his other movie appearances, Baruchel is becoming one of the better young actors out there. This is a great funny movie. Light enough for a fun afternoon viewing, but it has heart enough that you at least think a moment about relationships and how folks get along.

Giving four stars to a date film like this is not my pattern but I'm rating it for how much I liked it, and I truly did. Kirk is an airport security guard and a nerd. He's always wanted to be a pilot, but this is as far as he's likely to get. He has three friends who work with him, all nerds like him. His girlfriend Marnie, whom Kirk always considered at least an 8-1/2 but whom his friend "Stainer" thinks is skanky, has just broken up with him - yet Kirk's family inexplicably still treat her like a daughter/sister, and include her AND her new man in all their family doings, yet. (The family, incidentally, includes a boor of a father, a loutish brother, and the brother's common (and pregnant) fiance...Kirk may be a dork, but he and his mom - sometimes - are the only mannered people in the family.) Into the airport comes the perfect 10 woman, Molly, who has occasion to meet Kirk when he delivers to her something she left behind when his friends were falling all over themselves to give her a pat-down search. Molly is not only a 10 in looks, she's a 10 in heart too - a beautiful girl who has generosity of spirit to spare, without the ego and entitlement feelings of similar females. The story of how she and Kirk haltingly begin a relationship, with the oafs in his family, the snobs in hers, and Kirk's friends giving sideline grief makes for many laughs. The ex-girlfriend Marnie also plays a pivotal role, becoming jealous when she sees the interest such a girl as Molly has in the man she dumped. (And I loved the scene where Kirk's family, including Marnie and her new but now less desirable guy, file into the airport leaving for Branson wearing identical school bus-yellow sweatshirts proclaiming, "Branson Bound!") There are a couple of hilarious scenes involving shaving scrotal hair and being over-stimulated while still fully clothed that donate to the film's R rating. Jay Baruchel is perfect as the diffident but endearing Kirk and has a lot of talent backing him up.


4/5 Stars

****/*****