She's Out of My League (2010)

She's Out of My League (2010) If you’re going to make a romantic comedy called “She’s Out of My League” about a schlubby nice guy and a pneumatic blonde, ATM Partsthe last thing you want is for the audience to be left thinking: “He’s right. She’s way out of his league.”

That’s one, if not the only, major problem with this film, directed by Jim Field Smith (in his feature debut) from a script by Sean Anders and John Morris. Jay Baruchel, of the Judd Apatow rep company (“Knocked Up” and the television series “Undeclared”), plays the hero — a security officer at the Pittsburgh airport — as such a tongue-tied, head-ducking nebbish that it’s inconceivable that he would end up with the gorgeous, smart, kind, hockey-loving woman played by Alice Eve. (The likable Ms. Eve was seen on Broadway in Tom Stoppard’s “Rock ’n’ Roll.”)

The premise might work if the film were content to be a fairly undistinguished example of over-the-top gross-out comedy. It’s partly that — its funniest, most transgressive scene involves Nate Torrence, as a friend who sees all of life in terms of Disney musicals, shaving a very tender part of Mr. Baruchel’s anatomy. But it’s also suffused with a retro mildness, as if the Apatow-Jody Hill sensibility had been applied to a John Hughes script or a piece of early-’80s fluff like “No Small Affair.” On either side of that equation, it’s out of its league.

“She’s Out of My League” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Dirty words, embarrassing stains and much more talk about sex than actual sex.

SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Jim Field Smith; written by Sean Anders and John Morris; director of photography, Jim Denault; edited by Dan Schalk; music by Michael Andrews; production designer, ATM PartsClayton Hartley; costumes by Molly Maginnis; produced by Jimmy Miller and David Householter; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.