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WELCOME TO ME
Kristen Wiig's viability as a movie star continues to be in question with a disturbing and uncomfortable 2014 indie called Welcome to Me that began promisingly but eventually bogs down into a squirm-worthy story that should have evoked sympathy for its central character.
Wiig plays Alice Klieg, a woman with mental health issues who wins $86,000,000 in the lottery, moves to Las Vegas and invades a television station where she uses her new found wealth to finance her dream: her own television talk show. Problem is, Alice just wants to use the show to talk about herself and deal with issues from her past through re-enactments. When the show isn't exactly what Alice wants, she begins to pour more money into it and it actually starts garnering a selected audience, but as Alice deals with her problems on the air, she does a lot of damage to people in her life, including her best friend Gina (Linda Cardellini).
We are behind Alice when she wins the money because this is clearly an unhappy woman and we're hope the money will make her happy but it is not long into her new life that it is clear that money in this woman's hands is a dangerous thing. If the truth be told, it was kind of predictable that her show gets popular; however, I think a much more interesting story could have been told here if Alice kept pouring more and more money into the show and nobody was watching...the message presented here that you can buy ANYTHING with money is not a positive one and makes a character who should be sympathetic anything but.
Wiig does prove that she has what it takes to carry a movie, I just wish she would find a vehicle worthy of talent. She gets help from director Shira Piven and has a solid supporting cast behind her including James Marsden, Joan Cusack, Wes Bentley, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but the whole thing just made me squirm.
Kristen Wiig's viability as a movie star continues to be in question with a disturbing and uncomfortable 2014 indie called Welcome to Me that began promisingly but eventually bogs down into a squirm-worthy story that should have evoked sympathy for its central character.
Wiig plays Alice Klieg, a woman with mental health issues who wins $86,000,000 in the lottery, moves to Las Vegas and invades a television station where she uses her new found wealth to finance her dream: her own television talk show. Problem is, Alice just wants to use the show to talk about herself and deal with issues from her past through re-enactments. When the show isn't exactly what Alice wants, she begins to pour more money into it and it actually starts garnering a selected audience, but as Alice deals with her problems on the air, she does a lot of damage to people in her life, including her best friend Gina (Linda Cardellini).
We are behind Alice when she wins the money because this is clearly an unhappy woman and we're hope the money will make her happy but it is not long into her new life that it is clear that money in this woman's hands is a dangerous thing. If the truth be told, it was kind of predictable that her show gets popular; however, I think a much more interesting story could have been told here if Alice kept pouring more and more money into the show and nobody was watching...the message presented here that you can buy ANYTHING with money is not a positive one and makes a character who should be sympathetic anything but.
Wiig does prove that she has what it takes to carry a movie, I just wish she would find a vehicle worthy of talent. She gets help from director Shira Piven and has a solid supporting cast behind her including James Marsden, Joan Cusack, Wes Bentley, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but the whole thing just made me squirm.