Admission draws a very, very fine line between comedy and tragedy. It stars Tina Fey as an admissions clerk at a top university. She’s lead to believe that a student at a local farm college is the son she gave up for adoption when she was young. Hilarity ensues as she tries to bend the strict rules and secure a place for this gifted but unusual kid at her prestigious school.
Except of course hilarity doesn’t. The pain of handing over her child, the drama and the guilt and the devastation and the loss, are all too pertinent. There are some funny moments, and afterbirth gags and pratfalls and ditzy car-smashes and the like, but actually it’s all just a wee bit depressing. Admission filmed at Princeton, which is afforded outsized product placement throughout the film. I can see why they thought this would be a good idea. But it isn’t; not at all really.