Welcome To Me Review | Road Rash Reviews

4 stars for this brilliant but dark comedy.

Welcome to Me is written by Eliot Laurence (The Big Gay Sketch Show) and directed by Shira Piven (Fully Loaded).

“I have a prepared statement.”

It tells the story of Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig – Paul, Nasty Baby), a very troubled young woman who suffers from borderline personality disorder and is under the care of psychiatrist Dr Darryl Moffet (Tim Robbins – Mystic River, Jacob’s Ladder).

Alice is completely obsessed with Oprah Winfrey, owning video cassettes of all her shows and knowing them all off by heart. Now off her psychiatric meds, a quirk of fate leads her to win the lottery, a magnificent haul of $86,000,000.

She knows almost immediately what she wants to do and wastes no time becoming a guest on the “Live Alchemy” show hosted by the enigmatic Gabe (Wes Bentley – Interstellar, The Hunger Games), which she practically hijacks in order to talk about herself.

The producers are horrified, apart from Gabe’s brother Rich (James Marsden – X-Men) who sees dollar signs at her mention of a lottery win. When she requests her own show, in which she talks about nothing but herself and gets out her cheque book, he is more than happy to oblige and “Welcome to Me” is born.

It is of course car crash reality TV at it’s best (or worst) as she empties the contents of her brain over an unsuspecting public (including a fabulous recipe for meatloaf cake with sweet potato frosting and cherry tomato sprinkles) and there is only one way this rollercoaster ride can end.

Welcome to Me is an inspired film, brilliantly written and heartbreakingly funny in places. Rather than exploiting mental illness, if anything it highlights the fine line walked by reality TV shows when it comes to the well being of their participants.

Although it is very bleak in places, it is representative of the ups and downs of life and offers a stark reminder that money most certainly doesn’t solve all your problems.

Also having plenty of comedy to ease you through the awkward moments, this is a heartwarming film which I would thoroughly recommend.

“Here’s the deal. We are dead in the water without this woman.”