Gilmore Girl doesn’t fly far from the nest in Post Grad

Fremon and Jenson’s modern-girl story is overworked with “young adult” cliché

By Erica Phillips
Published: August 10th, 2009 | 12:00am

When Kelly Fremon found out that Montecito Pictures wanted to purchase her original screenplay (only the second she’d ever written), and that director / animation genius-lady Vicky Jenson (Shrek, Shark Tale) would be directing it, she must have flipped her shit. Then only in her mid-twenties, Fremon’s original screenplay – presenting an ambitious college graduate forced to move back home when her dream job doesn’t pan out – was just the thing these producers were looking for. But after more than 15 re-written drafts of the script, over-ambitious casting (including Michael Keaton, Carol Burnett, Jane Lynch, Rodrigo Santoro, Zach Gilford, and Alexis Bledel), and a few wacky-but-overdone motifs (think Delaware jokes and garden gnomes), the resulting feature lacks cohesion.

Post Grad is the story of Ryden Malby (the name is already too much, seriously) and her kooky family. After graduating with a major in English at nearly the top of her class, Ryden interviews at the publishing house of her dreams, but comes away unsuccessful. Having set her sights on only one career (“I want to discover the next great American novel!”), Ryden finds it difficult to start over. Added to this predicament are her entrepreneurial father, death-obsessed grandmother, hyperactive younger brother, sexy Brazilian neighbor man, and her platonic best guy friend (who’s actually in love with her). Cue movie poster images of Alexis Bledel blowing her bangs off her eyebrows and looking perplexed.

One can’t help but recall the oddball characters of Stars Hollow, Connecticut and Rory Gilmore’s practical-but-cute interactions with each of them. Always a step ahead of the crazy people around her, Bledel’s characters just seem to meld into one another, and it appears that the filmmakers in this case couldn’t get beyond her one-dimensional persona either.

Besides the colorful personalities in the film, the story itself is contrived – Ryden discovers what she wants, takes a big chance, and everything works out in the matter of a year. Anyone who’s been through that first part of life-after-college would agree that this movie sure isn’t reality-driven. This is particularly frustrating to those of us who had high hopes for a woman-penned generation-specific comedy. (For real, Jane Lynch was in it – how could it not be good?)

A self-proclaimed fan of John Hughes and Christopher Guest, Fremon still seems to be finding her own voice. But as long as she can keep in mind that Juno was a fluke, she might be able to make her own “great American” screenplay come true.