Before she straps on the proton pack to bag a trapful of New York City’s spooks, Kristen Wiig will be revelling in the joys of being very, very rich for Welcome To Me. Directed by Shira Piven, the film debuted at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival with little fanfare. So far it has snagged positive reviews from critics, most of which aim praise directly at Wiig. Now that the folks at Film Divider have signalled the existence of the movie’s teaser, we can catch a glimpse at her celebrated performance.
In the movie, Wiig stars as Alice Krieg, a reclusive TV obsessive who was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder early in life. That life undergoes a huge transformation when she wins the lottery – a staggering $86 million. Instead of buying a yacht, or having a full-scale replica of herself carved out of gold, she opts to start her own TV talk show.
Showcasing the brilliant comedic skills of its leading actress and the tact of screenwriter Eliot Laurence, the trailer manages to provide laughs without any insensitivity towards Alice or her diagnosis. It’s a comedy drama blend that boasts the typical indie cast that ought to secure it a solid theatrical opening.
Co-starring Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, James Marsden, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Tudyk and Wes Bentley, Welcome To Me is expected to open sometime in 2015.
Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig) suffers from borderline personality disorder, and though she manages it — and the accompanying medications and therapeutic care — fairly well, past tumult has left a broken marriage and strained familial relationships in its wake. She finds grounding in her daily routine, which includes memorizing every episode of Oprah and carefully monitoring her wardrobe and protein-laden diet. One can’t help but get the sense that Alice is straining to embrace bigger things, and when her numbers come up in the state lottery, suddenly she gets focused… on eighty million dollars’ worth of possibilities.
In quick succession, Alice buys a stretch of hours at a local television company, eschews her medication and therapy, moves into a casino, and creates her own talk show about — what else? — herself. As her show gains an audience (despite some off-the-wall cooking and medical demonstrations), Alice realizes that viewers identify with her re-enactments of past hurts and social slights. What she doesn’t recognize is that her own hunger for fame may just reflect a deeper need to be heard.