Wiig elicits empathy for grim character in cringe comedy
Welcome to Me is a comedy that’ll make you cringe and not just during the dog-neutering scene.
There’s another reason this film ought to make you feel acutely uncomfortable and that is, at its heart, the film has a lot to say about all too many of us and our increasing obsession with celebrity and our need to share everything about our otherwise ordinary lives with the world.
As the story opens, our ersatz heroine Alice Klieg is waking at her usual time in a drab, messy apartment where the television has been on for 11 years.
It doesn’t take long to realize that there’s something amiss with the Oprah-obsessed Alice, who doesn’t seem to have the same filters others do. To wit: she blithely acknowledges that she’s been using “masturbation as a sedative” for years. It doesn’t take too long to learn the precise diagnosis: Borderline Personality Disorder.
When an $86-million lottery win falls into her lap — minus applicable taxes, this being the U.S. — Alice stops taking her meds and hires a local cable company to create a talk show in which she will be the star.
Before long, she’s burning through her winnings in order to feed her unleashed ego and to settle scores with anyone who’s ever crossed her in any way.
Station co-owner Rich Ruskin (James Marsden) is happy to cater to Alice’s every whim — which includes riding on stage in a giant swan — though his brother, Gabe, has pangs of conscience, assuaged by the fact that Alice is a willing lover.
For station employees such as Dawn and Deb, the ensuing program is like a metaphorical car wreck where you can’t look away. It soon attracts a small, eccentric and loyal audience in the studio and among the general public.
While all of this may seem a little too cringeworthy for comedy, some redemption can be found in a slew of memorable performances, starting with Kristen Wiig as Alice.
Her performance is so letter perfect in every word, gesture and facial movement, one can almost feel empathy for a character who’s so clearly lacking it for others.
The rest of the cast is standout across the board, with special mention going to Wes Bentley, who delivers a nicely calibrated performance as reluctant boy toy Gabe, show director Joan Cusack, who manages to be funny without even trying and Linda Cardinelli, as Alice’s wonderfully patient best friend, Gina.
Director Shira Piven festoons the story with a bunch of quirkily ironic tunes such as “Catch a Falling Star” and “Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.” and the cinematography by Eric Alan Edwards makes the most of the California desert setting.
Not everything works. Alice’s aged parents are treated to ridicule bordering on cruelty and the inclusion of the characters of her gay ex-husband and his boyfriend feels pointless. The live dog neutering scene goes on far too long for those of tender sensibilities.
Still, there are loads of interesting characters and tart dialogue in Eliot Laurence’s script and there’s never a moment when it feels that Alice’s psychological issues are being exploited.
But those expecting comedy of Wiig’s standard oeuvre — of the Bridesmaids or Saturday Night Live variety — are going to find a very different animal in Welcome to Me, a film more likely to draw a grimace than a grin.