The beloved Tina Fey has some very funny moments in “Admission” as a tightly wound Princeton University admissions officer whose life is upended because of her long-ago college pregnancy.
She’s so good that — up to a point — you can ignore Paul Weitz’ erratic direction and a patchy script, both of which clumsily handle shifts between comedy and drama. And the sad fact that there’s zero chemistry between Fey and the normally reliable Paul Rudd, cast as her romantic interest.
Fey is a delight as the smart and ambitious Portia Nathan, who hopes to take over as Princeton’s dean of admission when her longtime boss (Wallace Shawn) retires at the end of the year.
On a tour to meet prospective students, she reluctantly agrees to visit a new “alternative’’ school run by John (Rudd), a former classmate from Dartmouth who she doesn’t remember.
Paul not only remembers Portia but knows the precise day that she put her newborn son up for adoption.
Eighteen years later, Paul claims, that baby has become Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), a senior he’s been mentoring.
And Jeremiah just happens to want to go to Princeton (which all his classmates hilariously dismiss as elitist, sexist and homophobic).
Before you can say “maternal instinct,’’ Jeremiah is touring Portia’s campus (filmed at the actual university) — despite the fact that he is not exactly “Princeton material.’’ — while she she’s
Struggling with her hands-off vow before her fellow admissions officers, Portia optimistically describes Jeremiah, an avid reader who aces standardized tests but has poor grades, as an “autodidact.’’ It sounds impressive — they used to label kids like us underachievers.
Adapted by Karen Croner (“One Fine Day’’) from a novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, “Admission’’ works best when it sticks to the Portia-Jeremiah storyline.
Unfortunately, our heroine is saddled with a pompous English prof as a live-in boyfriend (Michael Sheen, essentially reprising his role from “Midnight in Paris’’) who conveniently dumps her for a Virginia Woolf scholar.
This precipitates an extremely awkward romance with John, who is raising an African orphan (Travaris Spears) he met while traveling the world.
Rudd, who is rarely funny here, often seems to be acting in another movie. Even Steve Carell (a better match with the eight-years-younger Fey in “Date Night’’) would have trouble pulling off a terrible scene where Portia and John bond while delivering a calf.
Fey fares far better with the wonderful Lily Tomlin (who nearly steals the movie) as the hippie mom she can barely tolerate — who claims to have conceived Portia in a quickie with a stranger on a train.
The film’s funniest and sharpest sequence is a meeting of the Princeton admissions staff in which they debate who gets into the elite school.
Portia frantically tries trading favors with her colleagues (including Gloria Reuben, excellent as Portia’s ruthless rival for Shawn’s job) to get Jeremiah into the school.
Director Weitz doesn’t come close to pulling off the film’s drastic tonal shifts, but at least it’s an improvement over his last two films (“Being Flynn’’ and “Little Fockers’’), if far inferior to “About a Boy,’’ which Weitz co-directed with his more talented brother Chris.
“Admission’’ still has considerable entertainment value as a flawed vehicle for Fey. But even she can’t make you believe (mild spoiler) that Portia would end up committing career suicide to further the ambitions of a boy who, in all likelihood, will end up flunking out of Princeton.