Kristen Cherry J1

   Perhaps writer Kelly Fremon and director Vicky Jenson took the “quirky” a bit too far in their new release, “Post Grad.”

   The graduate in the movie, Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel), is shocked to find that life after college does not work out the way she planned. Despite merciless efforts to find a new job and move out of her parents’ house, she is forced to continue living with them for much longer than she hoped.

   The Malby family consists of Ryden’s impulsive father, empathetic mother, strange little brother, and eccentrically dressed grandmother who is preparing for her own death. This endearing family is unfortunately the best part of the whole movie.

   The cliché struggles of Ryden are only too predictable. For example, Ryden battles with an archenemy that always manages to outdo her and catch her in embarrassing situations. Not to mention the tense love triangle involving Ryden’s best friend and her Brazilian neighbor, David.

   This is a double whammy of trite situations.

   Essentially, “Post Grad” combines the idiosyncratic family endeavors from “Little Miss Sunshine” and the fall-in-love-with-my-best-friend romance of “Juno.” Unfortunately, this combination is not as good as it sounds.

   Though the plot was shallow and predictable, the one-liners were what made “Post Grad” an appealing movie. The peculiarity of the Malby family was undeniably funny.

   However, the Malby family’s eccentricity was overdone. It seemed as though a hodge-podge of strange and troublesome events just happened to them over and over again, revealing the truly “unconventional” nature of their family. Though some of this was forced, the humor was still there.

   Besides the comic aspect, the dialogue was uninteresting, mostly because it was unrealistic. The extremely cheesy lines were sometimes reminiscent of the “Twilight” movie. The script may have contributed to the poor delivery by some of the actors. This movie wasn’t a good showcase of Bledel’s acting abilities; it was even similar to that of Kristen Stewart at some points.

   Zach Gilford, who plays Ryden’s friend Adam, and Rodrigo Santoro, who plays her Brazilian neighbor, both managed a decent performance in the movie, despite the script. They pulled off convincing performances of dialogue that is not very convincing, which I thought was impressive.

   The music in this film also manages to momentarily distract from the shallow plot and weak dialogue. If you’re into the Kooks, Lily Allen, and Gym Class Heroes, you will probably enjoy most of the music featured in this film.

   Despite plot and dialogue flaws, “Post Grad” was definitely a feel good movie. If you have a soft spot for overly quirky humor and happy endings, this is definitely a movie you should see.