Admission

Portia Nathan works in the admissions office at Princeton University, where she weighs applications from ambitious teenagers and rarely steps outside the rules. On a recruiting trip to an alternative high school in New Hampshire, she runs into John Pressman, a former classmate of hers who now runs the place. He introduces her to Jeremiah, a bright but unorthodox student, and raises the possibility that the boy could be the child Portia gave up for adoption years earlier. The encounter pushes her to reconsider the careful life she has built.

The film was directed by Paul Weitz, the ninth of the thirteen features he has directed in chronological order, following Being Flynn and preceding Grandma. Karen Croner wrote the screenplay, and Weitz produced with Andrew Miano and Kerry Kohansky-Roberts. Tina Fey plays Portia, Paul Rudd plays John, and Nat Wolff plays Jeremiah, with Michael Sheen, Lily Tomlin and Gloria Reuben among the credited cast of seventy-four. Released in March 2013, it runs 107 minutes and combines comedy, drama and romance.

Made for a modest 13 million dollars, the film took in about 19 million worldwide, a return that leaves little room for profit once marketing and distribution are counted. Audience response sits at 5.7 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly thirty-seven thousand votes and 5.6 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller sample. A critics' rating of 5.5 out of 10 from 154 reviews places professional opinion close to the audience scores, with neither group regarding it as more than a mild diversion.