Admission

Review by Pamela Zoslov

For several years, I've been on a committee that selects candidates for a graduate school scholarship. Consequently, I understand why Portia Nathan, the Princeton admissions officer played by Tina Fey in ADMISSION, finds the process depressing. Nothing highlights the inadequacies of your own life like reading transcripts, personal essays and lists of accomplishments by super-achieving youths with bright, shiny futures. At times, you're tempted to do as George Costanza did when awarding a scholarship on Seinfeld: pick the underachiever who reminds you of yourself.

Portia, it seems, was poised for better things than a career in college admissions. The daughter of a famous 1970s feminist author and named for a Shakespeare heroine, she was a promising literary prodigy who got derailed into a stagnant job and a longtime relationship with a patronizing English professor (Michael Sheen) who pats her head like she's a Golden Retriever. She's an expert in the art of selecting students with the best chance for success (she tells eager candidates “the secret is, there is no secret”). She's competing with a devious rival (Gloria Reuben) for a promotion, her relationship is on the rocks, and a secret from her past surfaces and collides with her career. The movie's title has a double meaning – will Portia admit to the buried secret from her past?