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Capsule review: ‘Tenure’
Navigating the politics of college bureaucracy can be a tricky path. After bouncing around small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast, Charlie Thurber (Luke Wilson) finds himself nearing the end of yet another academic rope. He’s been at small Grey College for three years and his time to get tenure seems to be now or never.
Adrift in loneliness and dealing with a father waging a battle to be removed from his early placement in a retirement home, nothing seems to be going right for Thurber. When he is not agonizing over the future of his career at Grey or his family, he spends most of his spare time suffering his eccentric Bigfoot-chasing colleague (David Koechner).
When a cute, young, seemingly qualified professor, Elaine Grasso (Gretchen Mol), arrives from Yale, offering a threat to Thurber’s position in the English department and his White Whale of tenure, he goes into overdrive to protect his turf, haphazardly and comically plotting to keep his academic aspirations alive.
Wilson is likeable as the put-upon but charming Thurber trying to hold his family and career together, and Koechner successfully tones down and humanizes his over-the-top shtick in his role of lovable but hair-brained sidekick (think a more mellow and slightly less paranoid version of Walter Sobchak), but the film is a little too restless. Many of the scenes feature clever bits of dialogue, but they aren’t given time to develop, leaving a somewhat forced feel to the narrative.
Rosemarie DeWitt (“Rachel Getting Married”) steals a couple of scenes as Thurber’s rented date, and BobGunton (“24”) brings seriousness and heart to the role of Charlie’s dad, William Thurber, although his parallel story line at times seems contrived.
With his entertaining and at times touching feature debut, writer-director Mike Million shows promise as a filmmaker who understands the humor and heartbreak inherent in the human condition, although his first effort feels slightly too familiar to consider him a refreshingly unique voice.
“Tenure” screens again Wednesday night at 7 at the Arbor.
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