At first glance, it might not seem it, but Alice Eve has a tricky little bit of juggling to do in a part that seems like cookie cutter from the moment she steps on screen. However, even as Eve is sort of forced by conventions to be the girl who saves the boy, a trope all its own, she does so with some unexpected turns in the road. She’s Out of My League isn’t setting the genre on fire or rewriting the template, but Eve gives the ‘She’s’ in the title a surprising bit of weight that makes this far better than it deserves to be.
We meet spindly TSA officer Kirk (Jay Baruchel), still trying to deal with his girlfriend (Lindsay Sloane) dumping him, even though he feels it’s time to win her back. This is a choice his pals think to be a very bad idea. It is. Good thing because then along comes the beautiful Molly (Eve), who accidently leaves her phone at the airport security checkpoint, giving Kirk the chance to bring it to her the following night. As things happen in stories like this, happy for his kindness, Molly ends up offering Kirk some hockey tickets, which he kindly accepts, not realizing that she’s going to be there as well, believing it a date. During the game, sitting right next to him, she turns out to be a real down to earth girl (surprise), she finding the shy guy a real turn on because, well, the usual men she meets fawn all over her, posturing like fools while Kirk, well, he’s just really, really nice. But can a guy with no confidence date a girl like her? Or is she out of his league.
There’s hardly an original idea on tap here, but you kinda figured that already, the film fairly transparent all the way through. So that leaves it to the cast and that’s where it comes together like peanut butter and chocolate. Baruchel is perfectly cast, the diminutive actor feeling just right as a good guy mostly invisible to the rest of world, his ex-girlfriend (and her new beau) practically adopted by his own parents, who don’t seem all that supportive. Baruchel truly owns the part, as do his sidekicks, with pal Devon (Nate Torrence) especially good as an honest and slightly goofy friend who sees Kirk for what he is.
But of course, this is all Alice Eve, who so dominates the movie in all the right ways, she elevates the whole premise simply by being ‘the girl.’ Molly knows she’s a stunner but never embraces it like she could, clearly exhausted by the pathetic advances men sort of uncontrollably de-evolve into when she’s around. The movie does a good job of setting up that hurdle, making it entirely believable that she would have feelings for Kirk, a nice guy who sees well beyond what everyone else does.
Sure, this is a comedy so the film travels upon a few obvious paths where friends and family stare slack-jawed at Kirk with Molly, with even his ex beginning to see things in him she didn’t before. It’s nothing new, but at least the story gives Molly room to grow, including a great moment where it seems she is ready to have sex with Kirk, though he’s so wound up with self-loathing and disbelief in himself that well, things don’t go as planned. It’s a great little scene because it further humanizes Molly and her frustrations with men and their inability to accept her as just a girl.
Alice Eve got her first real break with She’s Out of My League, and has gone on to find larger fame in bigger movies, including Men in Black 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness. No matter where she ends up though, its as Molly in this small romcom that she should be most remembered, taking the blonde bombshell stereotype and giving it some vulnerability. She makes it all the reason why to see if in fact she is out of his league.