Welcome to Me
Dustin Chase
Saturday Night Live alum Kristen Wiig is a machine when it comes to delivering new work. Lately she has been producing three feature films a year, with Welcome to Me is just the latest lead role for the Oscar nominee. What feels like one of Wiig’s famous skit caricatures appearing in their own film, is actually deeper than that, it’s an uncomfortable look at mental disorder told through a dark humored script. Often the audience doesn’t know whether to feel sorry for this poor woman or laugh at her antics. One thing is for sure, Wiig (Bridesmaids, The Skeleton Twins) is the only actress who could make a character like Alice Klieg work in a film that is as bizarre in the way it’s told as its subject matter.
Alice Klieg (Wiig) suffers from borderline personality disorder and has recently stopped taking her medication. She is also unemployed and on disability which mandates she attend psychiatric sessions with Dr. Moffat (Robbins). However, as luck would have it, Klieg has won the lottery, the $86 million dollar jackpot, and her days of reciting vintage Oprah episodes are over. Klieg quits her therapy, moves to a reservation casino in Palm Spring and writes a check to a local production company to start her own television show. ”Welcome to Me, starring Alice Kleig” will focus on nothing but Alice Klieg, for two hours, five days a week. As Alice painfully explores her issues on live television, she becomes a train wreck personally and the more disturbing her show gets, the more people tune in.
Wiig’s performance is truly dynamic, the film itself is not.
“I simply don’t have time for the pain,” Klieg says, refusing mental help. I doubt that after seeing Welcome to Me anyone is going to have a better understanding of the disorder, but that never seems to be the films intention. Nor does it seem to want to fully entertain, as much as it seeks to explore odd behavior and this character making us and those around her uncomfortable. Lessons are learned, good will prevails, but I couldn’t help feel there should be more to this character. The supporting cast is impressive but startlingly underutilized especially with the roles given to Marsden (The D Train, X-Men) and Leigh (The Spectacular Now, Hateship Loveship) who should have provided more material for our lead character to play off.
When Kleig’s mother says, “Not everyone is an emotional exhibitionist,” she couldn’t have described this character any better. The script has Wiig walking around holding colorful umbrellas, floating on swan’s and discussing orgasms as if it were normal, daily behavior. Most of the screen time isolates Wiig on stage talking to “her audience”. I wanted to see more interaction with her parents who mostly just sit in the audience watching their daughter fall apart, instead of exploring the negative aspects that have led up to her life at the current moment. While Wiig’s performance is truly dynamic, the film itself is not, and needed more than just a producing credit from its star, maybe one of her magical script adaptations.
Final Thought
Wiig’s mentally disturbed performance is louder than the films faults.