If the modern tumultuous teen comedy is dead, The Re-Education of Molly Singer he may not resurrect it. But at least it reminds us that they once existed.
Certainly, his days Old school, The 40-year-old Panagiaand American Pie used to dominate the box office, but that was in the 2000s. Comedies of this type are still made, but rarely with the kind of heft and buzz they did in the old days.
And there is an embarrassment Molly Singer, both the character and the film it inhabits, reminiscent of the films of Chris Farley and Adam Sandler. Molly (Britt Robertson) has a great job. She is a powerful lawyer who represents rich and powerful clients. But she's also kind of relentless – as she's likely to spend, say, the night before a big court case calling shots and stumbling home at sunrise as she's about to get into the courtroom on time.
And Robertson is certainly no Sandler. Or Will Ferrell. Or Julia Roberts. Or Cameron Diaz, or whoever else you want to plug into that role. That's not to say Robertson doesn't have her own charms. Instead, there's something really endearing about her in that not-really-sure-what-it-is way. Like most of her movies I've seen, I wanted to like her more than I actually did. She's pleasant enough, with a face you want to like and trust, but she seems to be missing something.
This, of course, begs the question (as a confused judge in this film asks) just who they give law degrees to these days, because most people can't become lawyers without learning how to avoid these pitfalls.
However, all of that is beside the point because it's mostly background to the main plot. Molly gets fired from her job when she sabotages an important case. But her boss, Brenda (Jaime Presley, trying hard not to look like he's calling her), hires her for a… much more important job?
That job is looking after her even more awkward son, Elliot (Ty Sipkins), whose already reluctant college experience gets off to a bad start when he accidentally injures a star football player. Brenda recruits Molly to enroll in college to befriend Elliot, help keep him down, release his temper, and, with any luck, launch a career that culminates in a Senate seat (don't you ask).
If “cool hottie is hired to make a mousy loser cool” sounds vaguely familiar, I'd recommend checking out Jennifer Lawrence's No hard feelings, which has a suspiciously similar synopsis. Does one of these films rip off the other? Hard to say in Hollywood, but here we are.
But Molly Singer it doesn't have much scope since there are also very familiar echoes of movies like Billy Madison and the aforementioned American Pie movies, as well as tried-and-tested tropes from comedies from ages ago — from the ostentatiously gay best friend Ollie (Nico Santos) to the conveniently placed rival from the past to the quirky neighbor (Wendie Malick, who unfortunately only gets one scene and then disappears until the end credits scenes).
Don't forget dudebro Stu (Zach Scheerer) dating Lindsay (Cierra Ramirez), Elliott's neighbor and object of his own creepy crush. Lindsay shares Elliott's love of MMA, giving them some cutesy vibes, but the dynamic Stu is too much competition for Elliott to have a chance with her. Or is he?
There are some mild to moderately entertaining sequences. A bit when Molly and Ollie meet a staunchly conservative housing representative gets a laugh, and each of the main players has a moment or two.
But the script by Todd M. Friedman and Kevin Haskin just doesn't hit the high notes required. The film is full of odd references, with some modern conservative jokes, but also lines referring to Imelda Marcos, Happy days1970s The Incredible Hulk TV series and, perhaps most enigmatically, the 2005 Jake Gyllenhaal film Jarheada movie that would have come out when the character referencing it was a toddler.
This, combined with jokes that often don't quite land, and the story's general implausibility creates a strange lack of symmetry that prevents the film from rising to more than mild fun.
There's definitely some comedic talent at work here, and some young talent as well, but these characters are a little too broad and don't have enough chemistry and magnetism to make them memorable. The script unravels around the beginning of the third act, creating a puzzling scene that comes out of nowhere, doesn't really connect to the overall story, and creates conflict between Molly and Elliott as they escalate the battle with their respective rivals, slaughtering the artifact with paintbrush.
Molly Singer it's not an entirely bad movie. If you squint, you might see shadows of much better comedies of the past. But instead of satiating your nostalgia, you'll probably find yourself wishing you were watching one of them.
