Lola Versus

A graduate student (Greta Gerwig) gets dumped by her fiancé three weeks before the wedding and is forced to cope with turning 30 without a steady squeeze. Written by director Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister Jones (who also plays Gerwig’s best friend—and gives herself all the best lines), the movie has the low-budget indie look of a wannabe Woody Allen, but at heart it’s just a trite and shallow Hollywood rom-com, closer to Failure to Launch or He’s Just Not That Into You than to Annie Hall. It’s the kind of movie a woman is usually expected to carry only after she becomes a star, and Gerwig isn’t a star—not yet, anyway. Still, she gives it her best shot and manages to wring some sympathy out of us, although we may feel more sympathy for the actress’s plight (trapped in clichés) than for the character’s.