This month, my dear friend Amy recommended that I watch the movie Welcome to Me for this segment. So I did.
Welcome to Me stars Kristen Wiig as a woman with borderline personality disorder named Alice Klieg. Alice lives a mostly sedentary life going to her therapist (played by Tim Robbins) and watching Oprah re-runs. Then she wins 87 million dollars in the lottery and decides to host her own talk show where she discusses whatever she feels like at the time.
There's a lot of potential for wacky hijinks with this plot. It wouldn't be the first movie where a mentally unstable person got a TV show. However, Welcome to Me remains firmly rooted in reality. It can best be described as a black comedy, as there are some scenes that get a little...real.
Kristen Wiig nails this performance. Alice is unstable, but seems to have things under control. However, as things progress with her show, she grows more and more unhinged and alienates all of her friends and family. There are no wacky hallucination sequences or weird Twin Peaks dreams. We see Alice as she is: a woman who is unwell, who feels marginalized and wants to be noticed.
The whole cast gives an exemplary performance, which comes as no surprise since it's pretty stacked. Linda Cardellini (from Freaks and Geeks, Mad Men, a whole bunch of other shit) plays Alice's put-upon best friend. James Marsden (Cyclops from X-Men, one of Liz Lemon's boyfriends) plays the studio executive who has to control the chaos of Alice's show. Wes Bently (the creepy video-camera kid from American Beauty) plays Alice's main love interest/ James Marsden's brother. Joan Cusack (too many roles to list) rounds out the cast as the show's cynical producer.
Welcome to Me is absolutely a funny movie. However, it's not exactly lighthearted. Like I said, there are moments that get pretty uncomfortable so get ready for that. Check out this movie if you're feeling like watching something that's gonna make you laugh, but also make you think.