Welcome to Me

Plot synopsis:
Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig), a mentally ill single woman living on disability benefits, and fan of Oprah Winfrey, wins the California Stack Sweepstakes lottery jackpot of $86 million. She appears on the local TV news celebrating her win, but is upset when the speech she had prepared is abruptly cut off after she mentions using masturbation as a sedative. She discontinues her medication, against the advice of her psychiatrist, Daryl Moffat (Tim Robbins), and moves into a casino hotel with her best friend Gina Selway (Linda Cardellini).
During a vitamin supplement infomercial presented by Gabe Ruskin (Wes Bentley), Alice, who is in the studio audience, responds to his request for a volunteer, hijacks the broadcast and recites her speech once again (though is again cut off by the director). Gabe's brother Rich (James Marsden), the co-owner and manager of the studio, introduces himself and arranges a meeting to discuss Alice's idea for a tv show, at which Alice writes a cheque for $15 million to pay for 100 live-broadcast two-hour episodes of a 'vanity' show about herself entitled Welcome to Me. Gabe is nonplussed over the show's aimless premise, but after Alice takes him on a date, they promptly have sex and begin a relationship. Alice announces that she has given up her medication during the show's first episode, which includes a silent five-minute segment of Alice eating meatloaf cake with mashed sweet potato icing, followed by a live re-enactment of a scene from her past, with actors wearing name-cards playing herself and a friend who had betrayed her in high school. After seeing a recording, Alice decides the show looks too inexpensive and writes another cheque to bring the production values more in line with The Oprah Winfrey Show. The studio set is revamped to include a rotating stage and a replica of her house.
As the show grows in popularity, her friends and family become alienated by her non-flattering depictions of them in her sketches. Rainer Ybarra (Thomas Mann), a graduate student and fan of the show, interviews Alice about her rising stardom, and the two go on a date which ends with her fellating him in her limousine. Their tryst is revealed on air, much to Gabe's fury. While recovering from second degree burns sustained in a cooking accident on the show, Alice decides to introduce a new theme of neutering dogs on the show, utilising her six years' experience as a veterinary nurse. Fed up with her volatility, Gabe finally quits. Rich continues to support Alice's decisions until he and the studio are threatened with various lawsuits including slander and health code violations. Rich angrily interrupts the show, demanding that Alice cancel the veterinary procedures. Alice abandons the broadcast 40 minutes early, cancels her show and settles the lawsuits, leaving her with $7 million.
Alice suffers a nervous breakdown, walking naked through the main floor of the casino. She is hospitalized and resumes her medication. After being released, she apologizes to Dr. Moffat and contacts Rich to arrange a final episode of Welcome to Me. She invites her family and Gina to the broadcast, a lavish telethon aimed at finding owners for the dogs she has neutered, along with making amends to everyone she's wronged. In the show's last moments, Alice gives a heartfelt apology to Gina and praises her for her patience, and presents her with a check for the remaining $7 million of her lottery winnings.
Her life now back to normal, Gabe takes Alice home and gives her a camcorder as a gift. When she goes to bed, she finally turns off her television that she has left switched on continuously for over 11 years.

Tags: comedy, satire

Review:
It revolves around her character Alice Klieg, who was taking meds for her Borderline Personality Disorder before she won the lottery and subsequently ditched her psychiatrist and used the money to make her own talk show.
There are sad moments in the movie, there are laugh-out-loud funny moments as well, most if not all of which come from Wiig and her drab interactions with other people.
Welcome to Me just feels clunky at times, pacing wise, and it makes for a few dull spots here and there.Again, if you're not a fan of deadpan, dry, sarcastic humor then this movie is not for you.
Welcome to Me is a distinctly odd movie about a woman with a boderline personality disorder diagnosis and millions of dollars in lottery winnings who decides to have a vanity TV show all about her.
It's an interesting idea, and it kept my attention, but I feel it wasn't quite the movie it might have been.First off I'd like to talk about borderlines, because I've known a couple.
It is as though Kristen Wiig was so concerned with getting the symptoms right that she never thought about who Alice would be without her mental illness.
Wiig may seem more like a mildly autistic narcissist than a borderline, and the story may feel unsubstantial, but it is amusing to watch Alice create her entirely peculiar show and get into weird dietary fixations.
Alice Klieg, diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, emerges from a solitary and sedentary life as the new winner of $86 million from the state lottery.
The dry and dark humor of the film fits the acting abilities of Kristen Wiig perfectly.
Many people with BPD - or perhaps even the majority - are not at all psychotic (detached from reality) like Alice often was, but psychotic characters make for much more interesting and entertaining stories, particularly on film.
(In fact Daniel Johnston created a show called Welcome to my World, so he probably inspired Shira Piven or Eliot Laurence the writer (impossible to say).What Alice exposes here, are her defense mechanisms against falling apart, all of the creation of her soul to hold on to herself: her things ordered by colours (once I was very bored and colour coordinated my books), her highly proteinated diet, her traumas and she's capable of putting all that in a form that makes it watchable (a student in communication compares her work to Cindy Sherman's).
One of Wiig's scenes was particularly bold, but the fact that she was willing to do it shows what a good actress she is.I hope that Wiig continues with these kinds of movies, although I do also like her straightforward comedies).
It's certainly a strange movie and one that might or might not appeal to you-- probably depending on how much you are willing to watch a film that often makes you embarrassed and has a very, very dark sensibility.When the film begins, Alice (Kristen Wiig) has just won the lottery.
I assume they think it's meant to be a comedy...but the crazy antics and total self- absorption they see IS Alice.The film is a very interesting character study of a woman with a Borderline Personality--especially of one whose hold on reality is very tenuous and whose narcissism is extreme, even for a Borderline.
An interesting film to watch if you feel like you've seen it all..
A woman obsessed with Oprah Winfrey feels screwed over in her past, but wins the lottery and wants to have her own talk show.But it turns into an analysis of a "mental issue" and the diagnosis that goes along with that.I think everyone has issues - but when you give these issues names then you marginalize & categorize people that further push people into little boxes.By the end, I was moved to tears.
All it does is spread MORE misinformation, misrepresent a horribly excruciating problem, and on top of that, exploits those with it.This is not even close to an accurate depiction of BPD, and this film will only do one thing- further stigmatize this horrible affliction, making people even more hateful & cruel, which is already a bad enough problem right now.Their complete misunderstanding of the disorder is nauseating.
It is also really a film about the death of TV for the YouTube generation - who under 30 watches more TV than internet now?This is post-hipster, post-modern, life out loud funny, that leaves you with a bad taste - it is smart, both kind and cruel, and a brilliant take on Modern America.
Welcome to Me stars Kristen Wiig as Alice, a woman who suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
When she won a lottery that grants her a sizable amount of money, she produces, acts, and stars in a TV series entitled: Welcome to Me.First and foremost, this is the most endearing thing Kristen Wiig has done, outside her usual comedy movies.
Since her character has a debilitating mental illness, that behavior is like watching a slow train wreck unfold as the lottery winnings add fuel to her peculiar fire.
The movie peaks in the moment when the Wiig character starts filming her wacky show but doesn't really go anywhere after that.
It's a dark comedy that seems to work for her style.She did a terrific job at bringing humor to a real serious issue at the same time being sensitive toward the seriousness of it, which I've seen her do before in stuff like the Skeleton Twins.A mentally ill lottery winner spends her winnings to become the next Oprah on a talk show that expresses her own self absorption.The movie is driven by Wiig with a well rounded, well known cast supporting her, that includes Linda Cardellini( who I really like)James Marsden and Joan Cusack.It's a great Dramedy to watch..
when she utters the words 'nervous breakdown' during the first production meeting scene.This film is worth watching even if only for Wiig's performance -- she's truly amazing in this sadly over-looked independent production.Kudos to all involved in the making of "Welcome to Me"..
Instead, the story shows us everything we need to know about Alice and we're left to draw our own conclusions without the film adding its own judgement.As a BPD sufferer, Alice fears abandonment, is an emotional open-wound, sexually and financially impulsive without ever thinking through the consequences of her actions and incapable of empathy for other people or even seeing them as people.
Welcome To Me" (2014 release; 88 min.) brings the story of Alice Klieg (played by Kristen Wiig).
A reviewer on Amazon mentions that this is Kristen Wiig "at her most hilarious", and while there are definitely some funny moments in the movie, I can't think of this movie or of Wiig as being "hilarious", as this is an off-center (and then some), dark comedy that raises more questions than it delivers laughs (on purpose, I might add).
There are a bunch of supplementary roles that are worth noting, including from Jennifer Jason Leigh (as the cable channel executive), Tim Robbins (as Alice's shrink), Linda Cardellini (as Alice's best friend Gina), and Wes Bentley (as the TV host/cable channel part-owner).This movie was shot over 2 years ago, and after making festival appearances last year, now finally has arrived in theaters.
Alice Kleig (Kristen Wiig) has Borderline Personality Disorder that manifests itself in ways like eating a meatloaf cake with sweet-potato icing on TV and walking nude through a casino.After winning the lottery, she buys a TV talk show and proceeds to talk the whole boring time about herself (no surprise as the title of her show is the title of the film and leaves no room for doubt that it's all about her).
She strangely advises the audience, "You can have what I have if you really believe in it." She asks a stranger on the street if there was "a rape in A Tale of Two Cities." She's not even goofy, just much past the borderline of normalcy with few laughs.To be fair, she's attempting to find out, as we all should, who she is, and therefore using the therapy of a talk show to expunge her demons and discover "me." It just doesn't make for good comedy—bizarre yes, funny no.Although I find little humor in her BPD, at least in the dreary way director Shira Piven and writer Eliot Laurence present it, I was hoping for some broadcast humor such as Will Ferrell (a producer of this film) and Adam McKay gave in Anchorman or the insightful satire in Broadcast News and Network.
Joan Cusack in the control room expertly expresses my disbelief in Alice's shenanigans, and like me, she finds it dreary without being funny.I have to hand it to the filmmakers, however: I have a very good idea about Borderline Personality Disorder.
Cast a talented performer who thrives in "off-center" roles, and the potential exists for some actual insight.Kristen Wiig is obviously attracted to unusual characters, as well as stories that wobble between comedy and drama.
Sure, there are some highly awkward and uncomfortable moments – some quite funny, but the movie really plays more like an extended comedy sketch, and whatever works seems due to the stellar cast: Wiig, Marsden, Bentley, Cusack, Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Thomas Mann, and the underutilized Linda Cardellini.
Alice (Kristen Wiig) buys the TV time and the services of a production company with the fortune she wins in the lottery.
Apart from Wiig, the rest of the supporting cast was not bad, but very sad to see such a good looking wonderful actress like Linda Cardellin in a small role.
One of the more downright bizarre films you're likely to watch this year, this latest effort from the producing pair of Will Ferrell and Adam Mackay sees one of everyone's favourite female comedy leads Kristin Wiig as an even more demented version of King of Comedy's Rupert Pupkin to indifferent results that makes Welcome to Me a controlled train wreck that you can't help but watch.One of those comedy films where you almost feel too awkward or bad to even laugh, Welcome try's to walk the fine line between comedy and dramatics and when dealing with the anything but funny issue of mental illness (in which Wiig's Alice Klieg certainly suffers from) it's tough for a film to balance all the elements to combine a cohesive whole.
While films like the aforementioned King of Comedy certainly did it and little scene films like Observe and Report straddled the line well, Welcome can't seem to bring the goods to the table needed to make both the antics of Alice's hilarious (live TV animal neutering anyone?) or her serious issues something we can care for, despite the best intentioned efforts of the daring and baring Wiig.We all know of Wiig's talents in the comedy field and with last year's Skeleton Twins in particular showcasing Wiig's chops in more serious pictures, it's good to see her once more try something outside the box.
Wiig is arguably the films greatest asset and while things come and go on screen in a flurry of random developments, Alice's adventure as a lottery winner and makeshift TV show presenter is a site to behold sometimes for the right reasons and more often for the wrong reasons but its Wiig's commitment to the cause that makes us stick by and watch and while we never really get an understanding for Alice's true identity, Wiig certainly deserves a pat on the back.Without a second of a doubt too weird to connect to many more than a handful of viewers, Welcome to Me is a strange exercise exploring mental illness in the comedic medium that could've quite easily become something special on the back of Wiig's performance but ends up being a disappointingly unengaging journey to the deepest recesses of the bizarreness of the human condition and our ever thirsty want to feel relevant.2 recorded Oprah shows out of 5.
The supporting cast of Welcome to Me includes good actors such as Wes Bentley, Linda Cardellini, Joan Cusack, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Robbins, James Marsden and Alan Tudyk, whose characters form a micro-universe of drama and dysfunction which would have been interesting to examine.
It's unfortunate because after seeing Wiig in something like Skeleton Twins, which is a brilliant movie, Welcome to Me was a step back in terms of quality.
Kristen Wiig plays a woman with borderline personality syndrome who wins $86 million in the lottery.
There was such a great supporting cast in this, which who happen to be the talents of James Marsden, Wes Bentley, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Thomas Mann, Alan Tudyk & Linda Cardellini.
They portray Kristen Wiig's character with such a very ill mental state but I'm not really sure if they were trying to focus on that concept to get something out or they just wanted to use it for comedy but for whatever which way they did it, they still managed to bring the humor out of her character in this if she had her own show.
Overall, Kristen Wiig really brings the character of Alice Klieg to life in this film with her strange awkwardness, outspoken mind, how she just says absolutely says anything that's on her mind even though how crude it can be and how she just goes up to strangers to ask them unnecessary and out of the ordinary questions.
The laughs were definitely brought in this different Indie film and I really laughed quite a lot because from dark humor like this, you just can't help but to tune in to see what Alice can bring!.
Welcome to Me follows Alice, a 40-something woman diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.
She is very socially awkward and the only people in her life are Gina, her best friend since middle school, Ted, her gay ex-husband and his partner, her old parents, and Dr. Daryl, her therapist.One day, Alice wins the lottery: 86 million dollars.
Her role in this film is impressive, but I couldn't figure out if it was trying to be a drama or a black comedy.Wiig is Alice, who suffers from borderline personality disorder and has gone off her meds as prescribed by her therapist (Tim Robbins).
Sticking to these ingredients is not modern, because it's like we're stuck with them, it prevents the story from developing beyond and cuts down the character's charisma and dimension.For example, I wish we had seen the world more through her eyes in addition to the talk show, it would have been interesting to show how she interprets what people tell her, with cinematic effects or day dreaming scenes, or inner voice.
The weakness of the movie is that it shows her from our point of view, not hers (despite her talk show), so all the drama in her life seems very trivial, it's almost like we mock her, but we don't understand her.
"As a new member of the rich and famous I simply don't have time for the pain." Alice (Wiig) is a socially awkward woman who sees a shrink and takes pills and watches Oprah in order to make it through the day.
She portrayed a woman with Borderline Personality Disorder exactly like it is.The main character winning the lottery and starting her own show was absolutely genius.
I regret every second I spent watching this movie thinking it would get better because Kristin Wiig was in it.
This type of movie just makes me want to go back and watch youtube videos, where this type of awful story/production/humor is expected for someone filming in his own bedroom.
Review: This movie had a really strange storyline, which I didn't find that funny, and the strange world that, lottery winner, Alice Kleig, (Kristen Wiig) built around herself was completely bonkers.
Before Alice wins the $86million jackpot, she spent most of her life watching TV, and regularly sees her psychiatrist, Dr. Daryl Moffet, played by Tim Robbins, who helps her with her borderline personality disorder.
It was good to see Tim Robins back on the big screen and Joan Cusack, Jennifer Jason Leigh and James Marsden were quite funny but that was about it.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $650,000I recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/comedies starring Kristen Wiig, Wes Bentley, Linda Cardellini, Joan Cusack, Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, James Marsden,Thomas Mann and Alan Tudyk.
Kristen Wiig creates a brand new character that has a lot of hand movements and manages to stay unrecognizable from any of her previous roles with the most entertaining scenes coming from the dialog with her doctor played by none other than Tim Robbins.I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I'll place it in my top 3 this year for the original subject it brings forward, for the fantastic story that ends on a great note and for the fantastic interactions between these great actors.
But this movie has me wanting more Kristen Wiig.
This is one of those movies that I will watch again when I really need something to pick me up and make me laugh, even though it's not a "feel good" story.
Now mind you, I don't typically take time out to write reviews on "boring films", but I really want the audience to understand how long and drawn out this movie is.
She has become so attached and in love with TV, the ridiculousness, and the fake reality it represents, that when luck makes her a millionaire she chooses to become one of these "role models" she keeps on watching and she buys a show of her own.Alice the heroine in this film is perfectly made for Kristen Wiig and her deadpan humorous character.
It has an interesting and quirky story, Wiig is really good, but the whole movie is a bit uneven.
Good movie for those who just want to see something totally different from the usual fare.Kristen Wiig is Alice Klieg.
Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig) has borderline mental issues under the care of Dr. Moffet (Tim Robbins).