She’s Out of My League came out 10 years ago today. Despite some obvious flaws, this has long been one of my favorite comedies. Senior year in college, it was constantly airing on Showtime, so it was watched in full or in pieces countless times throughout the year. We regularly quote the movie even now. So there’s some definite nostalgia at play here. But the question is, does it hold up?
Spoiler alert! It holds up, pirate. It definitely holds up.
Your classic rom-com plot
She’s Out of My League follows TSA agent Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel) as he navigates life post-breakup with Marnie (Lindsay Sloane). He wants to get back together with her, much to the chagrin of his friends, Stainer (T.J. Miller) and Jack (Mike Vogel). His friend Devon (Nate Torrence), however, always the positive force, is more supportive
Things go predictably wrong for Kirk, beginning with a failed gift-giving attempt (in front of Marnie’s new boyfriend Ron, no less). What makes this scene even better is that it happens at Kirk’s house. His family remains close with Marnie, inviting her, and by extension, Ron into their lives. It’s a situation fit for a romantic comedy, and its absurdity plays off as a nice recurring joke throughout the movie.
Feeling hopeless, things take a turn for Kirk when Molly McCleish (Alice Eve) comes through his security gate. Molly is gorgeous and self-confident, immediately garnering much unwanted attention from other TSA agents. In a perfectly fitting tropey meet-cute, Molly forgets her phone at the security gate. Her friend Patty (Krysten Ritter) calls it and Kirk answers. Kirk and Molly agree to meet up the next night when Molly is back in town. And from there, it’s off to the races.
The usual tropes
She’s Out of My League certainly falls victim to the usual genre tropes. There aren’t really any surprises throughout the course of the central relationship. You can track its path from the meeting, to the fight over something stupid, to them realizing the little thing that broke them apart isn’t that big of a deal. It has Molly’s ex-boyfriend re-enter the picture, causing some unwanted competition for Kirk. So what does it do to stand out from the crowd?
It’s hilarious
This is where She’s Out of My League outshines so many other romantic comedies; it leans more into the comedy side of things than the romantic. All six of the major characters have their moments to shine. Kirk’s family and Ron provide some of the funniest moments in the movie.
It doesn’t have a rock star, A-List cast, the story isn’t anything special. So it relies on the jokes, and the jokes are golden. It’s incredibly quotable and, for the most part, the humor is evergreen. It’s not topical or super specific to the times. It was funny 10 years ago, and it’s still funny now.
Let’s take a breather and look back at some of the funnier scenes (some NSFW language).
Central theme
I know this is where some take issue with She’s Out of My League. When Kirk and his buddies are talking about his chances with Molly, Stainer refers to her as a “hard 10,” while Kirk is “only” a 5. If it feels at least a bit reductive to reduce two people to nothing more than a simple number, that’s probably because it is.
Every romantic comedy needs something to drive a wedge between the two leads. It can be a misunderstanding, an ex entering the picture, a potential move, any number of things. And yes, sometimes it can be due to one of the characters thinking they’re not good enough (or too good) for the other.
And in that sense, She’s Out of My League does put a slightly unique twist on things. Everyone deals with self-doubt, whether it’s in a relationship or not. So to see that play out on screen, and see both Kirk and Molly come to terms with that is nice.
But the number thing just doesn’t sit quite right. There are unlimited reasons why two people might not be a good match. But the subjective opinion of what they’re respective “scores” are shouldn’t be one of them.
Many of us have been guilty of this, probably especially in our younger days. But seeing grown men (granted, fairly immature grown men) lean so heavily into it is one of the few things that didn’t age so well.
The pirate gag
I can’t talk about She’s Out of My League and not mention the recurring pirate bit. You saw it in a couple of the clips above. Ron constantly refers to Kirk as “pirate.” There’s no explanation to it; it’s just a part of Ron’s character. It makes no sense, and it’s amazing.