Welcome to Me

Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig) wins a huge lottery, decides to forgo her meds, and moves into a casino. Being a huge Oprah fan, she wants her own talk show, so she buys one from a local production company manned by two squabbling brothers (James Marsden and Wes Bentley). The show focuses primarily on her, her quirky personality traits, and her love of meat loaf cake. Shira Piven's movie is a terrific showcase for the dramatic talents of Wiig. Yes, she gets plenty of laughs in the movie, but she goes deep under the surface of Alice in a performance that is as strong as her excellent work in last year's The Skeleton Twins. Alice's talk show is pretty hilarious, offering the opportunity for some great deadpan humor from Joan Cusack as its director. Bentley and Marsden (so good in the recently released The D Train) are terrific as brothers with completely different attitudes. Wiig is making some interesting role choices these last couple of years, mixing “bigger movies” with strong smaller films like this one. She's quickly developing into one of the more reliable performers in cinema today, and this movie proves that she's willing to take some huge chances in the name of entertainment.