Post Grad (12A)

The screenplay of this would-be quirky comedy about the job market at least has its finger on the economic pulse.

Unfortunately, that finger is the only vital sign in its whole constitution. Alexis Bledel, channelling Reese Witherspoon, plays a furiously ambitious post grad whose dreams of a big-deal publishing job fall flat when her college rival nabs the position instead. So she returns to her suburban home where her feckless father (Michael Keaton) pursues get-rich-quick schemes, her mother (Jane Lynch) wrangles her weird younger brother and grandma (Carol Burnett) makes elaborate plans for her funeral. The writer Kelly Fremon admits satisfaction in nailing the zeitgeist ("We never dreamed how relevant the film would be...") but doesn't see how unendearing her heroine is, especially in her offhand way with the college boyfriend (Zach Gilford) who dances faithful attendance. Post Grad is trying to reproduce the wackily dysfunctional manners of family life that made Little Miss Sunshine a hit, but hasn't the charm, the jokes or, significantly, the nerve.