Wiig-ing Out Over Kristen in 'Welcome to Me' (2014)

SNL veteran Kristen Wiig is best known for a brand of comedy I like to think of as the "awkward-creepy girl." Who could forget her SNL character, the woman with small baby doll hands, who groped other cast members while singing about her genitals? Or the perm-headed Gilly, who wreaked havoc in every sketch before delivering her signature, double-chinned, "Sorry"?

Characters and moments like these are Wiig's forte--making audiences laugh uncomfortably, confused as to whether they're enjoying themselves or not.

"I...think I'm into this?"- Everyone

It comes as no surprise, then, that she brings her awkward-creepy persona out in full force as Alice Klieg, a new lottery winner suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) in Shira Piven's new film, Welcome to Me.

The film follows Klieg as she wins $86 million, than spends a large chunk of that fortune on producing a talk show starring, well, her. Aptly titled, Welcome to Me, the talk show becomes what Alice's mother terms, "emotional exhibitionism," allowing Alice an outlet for her manic behaviour, which worsens as she goes off her medication.

A strange concept for a film, it somehow (mostly) works, mostly thanks to Wiig's superb skills as the awkward-creepy girl. Her deadpan delivery of lines like, "My name is Alice Klieg, and I've been using masturbation as a sedative since 1991," shine throughout a film that could have very easily fallen more into "dark" than "comedy."

That's not to say that Welcome to Me doesn't tread a very thin line between "dark" and "comedy," "laugh-out-loud funny" and "uncomfotable-making." Due to its dealing with mental illness, Piven's film becomes a delicate navigation of offensive and acceptable.

BPD is probably best known in popular culture from Susanna Kaysen's memoir and the resulting film, Girl, Interrupted. You might remember Winona Ryder trying to play a teenager at age 26, looking over her diagnosis and listing off traits like, "manipulative" and "exhibits promiscuous behaviour," while scowling like a 14-year-old.

Girl, Interrupted, however, looks at BPD from the angle of an angsty teen: Is it really an illness, or does life just getcha down?

Pictured: Angstistential Crisis

Welcome to Me takes a different approach: comedy. This is where the film's treatment of a bipolar-like disorder has polarized many of its viewers. Some see this comedic approach as refreshing. Others see it as doing a disservice to those suffering from BPD.

Regardless of what your own reaction might be, Welcome to Me is inarguably an incisive look at reality television culture, our new version of a "freak show" or "circus." Alice is clearly unstable, but because of her influx of cash, the television station manager she approaches, played with his usual slickness by James Marsden, takes her on. Her emotional outbursts only bring the show higher and higher in the ratings, while some of her failed segments, like a five-minute video of her eating a meatloaf cake, provide some of the film's best comedic moments for the audience.

Although Alice Klieg is an adult woman with a certain amount of autonomy, Shira Piven's film examines her newfound fame as a result of her differentness, her "freakishness," for lack of a better word. Just as networks like TLC create shows about "different" people, like the polygamous family of Sister Wives, or the Duggars of 19 Kids...and Counting (who are now caught in the midst of an unfortunate scandal), the station that produces Alice Klieg's show does so because they know she will behave differently.

Welcome to Me-atloaf

While Welcome to Me might provide an intriguing social commentary, and allows Kristen Wiig to deliver what's probably one of her best peformances, the film itself struggles to make itself memorable. With a lethargic pace and lackluster conclusion, Welcome to Me fizzles out by about 1/3 of its run-time. What should feel like a quick 90-minute comedy instead feels like a 300-minute epic. This is due in part by its writing, which gives the best lines and moments only to Wiig, leaving some strong supporting cast members, like Joan Cusack, who plays Klieg's showrunner, tragically underused.

Although Welcome to Me does create some hilarious bits, it ultimately feels like forgettable fluff--by its conclusion, you might wish you'd watched a 90-minute video of someone eating a meatloaf cake.

I give this film 2.5/5 Swan Boats

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