Welcome To Me

*

Reviewed by: Angus Wolfe Murray

Welcome To Me - Kirsten Wiig
"There have been bad films. There have been terrible films. And then there's Welcome To Me"

This looks dangerously like a vanity project. Kristen Wiig is listed as a producer along with her pal from acting school, Will Ferrell. Who is she? Why did she want to make this movie?

Her first screen outing was in Knocked Up where she played the pregnant heroine's passive/aggressive boss and then in 2008 flipped over to TV satire and joined the Saturday Night Live crowd. Four years later she co-wrote and starred in Bridesmaids which made her into a star, if indeed she is a star.

Copy picture

She looks like Jennifer Aniston's twin and appears to have the knack of turning every joke sour in this mishandled, miswritten and miscued comedy flatliner.

She plays Alice who is mentally out there, which, in the old days, before political correctness, would have been dubbed loony toons, implying an energy surge, followed by breakdown, with (maybe) some of that electric charm displayed by Jack the Lad in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

No chance.

Alice wins $86million on the lottery and decides to spend it on an Oprah-style TV talk show, except she doesn't have guests, she has herself. Since she's off the meds and off the wall the result is beyond embarrassing.

She castrates dogs live on screen, confesses to using masturbation as a sedative and insults her ex school mates for being nasty to her. She seduces any man brave enough to sympathise with her selfish addictions and stays in a reservation casino with the blinds drawn and the TV on.

There have been bad films. There have been terrible films. And then there's Welcome To Me.

It stands alone. It sinks alone. It should never have been born.

Reviewed on: 16 Mar 2016
Share this with others on...
When Alice Klieg wins the Mega-Millions lottery, she immediately quits her psychiatric meds and buys her own TV talk show.
Amazon link

Director: Shira Piven

Writer: Eliot Laurence

Starring: Kristen Wiig, Wes Bentley, James Marsden, Linda Cardellini, Tim Robbins, Alan Tudyk, Joan Cusack, Loretta Devine, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mitch Silpa

Year: 2014

Runtime: 87 minutes

BBFC: 15 - Age Restricted

Country: US

Festivals:


Search database: