My wife and I have this theory that professional reviewers tend to pan movies that present rich people in an unfavorable light. I’m not talking about movies where rich people are the villains, but they are also presented as sexy and appealing objects of the audience’s envy; I’m talking about class-informed movies where rich people are presented as the nasty, selfish, entitled pricks that they actually are. This tendency has proven so reliable that when we see a movie that is getting panned and it clearly has at least some subversive content, no matter how paltry, we always give it a chance, and it is almost always at least decent, often quite good. I’m not exactly sure why professional critics are doing this, or if they are even aware of their bias, but nevertheless the pattern exists and should be kept in mind when interpreting professional film reviews.

The latest example of this unfair trashing is Girl Most Likely, a very pleasant, decently made and enjoyable film about a naive, working class striver (Kristen Wiig) who by virtue of dating a rich guy gets nominal and temporary admission to “the club” of New York City’s super-privileged, only to loose everything the minute he dumps her for a super-model. She winds up back in Ocean City New Jersey, trying to figure out where her life went wrong, and she has to confront the realities of her family, her hometown, and her frustrated aspirations.

I think it’s very interesting that critics are portraying this film as making fun of New Jersey. Actually the film is the exact opposite: its point is that New Jersey (or anywhere for that matter) is not so bad a place after all, once one’s illusions of joining the super-rich are shattered or disabused. The folks in her life are strange and troubled to be sure, but all these colorful characters are played perfectly straight and very humanly by the excellent cast, and not simply exploited for cheap laughs  and discarded. And they eventually emerge as decent, warm and caring, if somewhat bizarre, individuals who were not at all deserving of the contemptuous scorn Wiig heaped on them initially. Wiig even comes to fairly realistic terms with the realities of her class and her feelings about who she is. In contrast, the wealthy, privileged people in the movie quickly reveal themselves to be selfish and despicable assholes, and again this portrayal is straight, unglamorized and spot-on.

The film is quite well-cast. I’m not sure there’s any actress more comfortable with portraying a embarrassingly messed-up and obnoxiously misguided character than Kristen Wiig. Annette Benning is solid as the mother, and Christopher Fitzgerald gives a very nice, sensitive performance as her brother. Darren Criss is good playing opposite Wiig, as his warm and likable personality blends nicely with her cold, clumsy act. And last but not least, Matt Dillon is always a very welcome presence in a movie, no matter how small his role.

Now, with all that said, Girl Most Likely is not a great movie. The humor in general is a bit clunky and does not work all that well, the story structure is a touch muddled and contrived, and it rides its (quite good) score a fair bit. But by the end of the film, it had basically won me over, and I am not at all sorry I went to see it.

My recommendation is that you ignore the critics and give Girl Most Likely a chance. Underneath the blemishes, it’s a pretty sweet movie.