Have you ever dated anyone and said to yourself: She’s Out of My League (2010)?  Okay, if this describes you, you probably did not add the (2010) at the end.  Further, if you are female, you might have put it as “he’s out of my league.”  Speaking for myself, I am not.  First and foremost, I credit my Catholic Faith for properly grounding me.  Everything else is details.  Still, there was one person I had a relationship to which, when we were together, I thought today’s title applied.  It did not work out, and that is fine.  So far as I know, she is happily married with a family, and that is a blessing.  It was a lessoned learned for me, and that is a big reason why I started The Legionnaire in the first place.

From listening to and looking at Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel), the male lead in She’s Out of My League, you would initially think that this twenty-something Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer has never learned anything.  Sitting with his co-workers and friends while on break at the Pittsburgh International Airport, he announces after two years that he is ready to try to rekindle his relationship with Marnie (Lindsay Sloane).  They are dubious of this idea, but he forges ahead, thinking the strange tchotchke he purchased for her with a picture of them in the shape of a heart will win her over.  She spurns the gift, and his overture, but it gets stranger.  In the intervening time since they broke up, she has moved in with his parents, along with her boyfriend, Ron (Hayes MacArthur).  Not only is Kirk a push over with this arrangement, he allows his brother, Dylan Kettner (Kyle Bornheimer), to bully him.  Kirk’s parents do not do much to dissuade this behavior.  Kirk is feeling a bit depressed until the next day at work Molly McLeish (Alice Eve) passes through his TSA checkpoint.  All the other guys, including him, have trouble taking their eyes off of her.  Unlike the rest, he treats her like a human being and helps her get to her flight, for which she is running late.  In her haste, she forgets her phone on the x-ray belt.  Borrowing Patty’s (Krysten Ritter), her best friend and co-worker, cell, she calls and gets Kirk.  He offers to place it in lost-and-found for her, but she insists that he come to an event she is hosting the next night to return it in person.  He can hardly believe someone so good looking would make such an invitation, so he goes with Devon (Nate Torrence), who also works at the airport.  Devon is the sensitive type, seeing the rendezvous as being full of Disney magic.  Kirk and Molly chat a little, but she is busy with her hosting duties.  Nonetheless, when he is forced to make a hasty retreat, she rushes after him to apologize and say she will make it up to him.  To his friends’ shock, this turns into her asking him to dinner.  God bless the guy for admitting to being nervous while they eat, a refreshing bit of honesty which perseveres despite her ex-boyfriend, stunt pilot Cam (Geoff Stults), showing up at the restaurant.  Indeed, the evening goes so well that she ignores the call from Patty which the friend makes in case the date is a dud.  The surprising turns of events keep coming when she insists on coming with him to meet his parents.  He had expected just Mr. (Adam LeFevre) and Mrs. Kettner (Debra Jo Rupp), but instead has to deal with the craziness of his brother, his fiancée Debbie (Jessica St. Clair), Marnie, and Rob.  They make all the off-color comments you would expect but Molly handles it with ease, even accepting their invitation to come with them to Branson, Missouri.  God bless her for that one.  In short, things are going well until they get back to her place and things get steamy.  Not to be too detailed her, but a certain bodily function happens for Kirk while fully clothed and it leaves a stain.  This might be fine had Mr. (Trevor Eve) and Mrs. McCleish (Sharon Maughan), Molly’s dad and mom, not shown up to pick up their dog.  Without shaking Mr. McCleish’s hand, which is a red flag for the old-fashioned man, Kirk all but runs from the apartment.  Days pass without any contact from Molly, but plenty of ribbing from Kirk’s friends when they hear about the incident.  Kirk’s better-looking friend, luggage handler Jack (Mike Vogel), is the one who suggests that not only does he apologize, but that he is honest about what happened.  This works and Kirk and Molly resume dating.  Genuine affection is developing between the two, which is only improved when he comes up with the plan for Katie McLeish’s (Kim Shaw), Molly’s younger sister, twenty-first birthday party.  That night, Kirk and Molly once again try to be intimate at her place, which is when she reveals that she has webbed toes.  This so-called “defect” had been warned by Cam, but Kirk had been expecting something worse.  She takes this as meaning that he is relieved that she is more on his level, and this leads to them arguing about their relationship.  She also admits that she had asked him out because he felt like a safe choice.  The crux of the matter is that their insecurities are brought to the fore and he leaves.  A few days later, Kirk turns up at the airport with Marnie on his arm headed to Branson.  Finally, Kirk’s sarcastic best friend, Wendell “Stainer” (T.J. Miller), sees that Kirk should be with Molly.  With some help from Jack and Patty, Stainer is able to stall Kirk’s plane and get Molly to the airport.  They meet in the terminal, confess their love, and we end with them kissing.

There have been times when I have wished I could experience something like the ending of She’s Out of My League, the woman I love rushing to stop me from leaving on an airplane.  Then again, I am a romantic.  What I am also is a little like Kirk.  Similar to him, I have struggled with being self-conscious and feelings of not being good enough for someone else.  What we are not doing is following Devon’s advice to be who we are.  Admittedly, it is cliché, but it fits with how God sees us.  We should not compare ourselves with others because God does not do so.  He has a special relationship with all of us, and loves us more than we can love ourselves, or anyone else.  It is beyond understanding how much He loves us.  To accept that fact, we must first trust.  This, of course, is easier said than done.  For Kirk, despite being the nice guy and sticking to those principals in the face of what amounts to constant abuse, his experiences make it hard for him to believe that a woman like Molly can be into him.  The concept is roughly the same when it comes to faith.  I can go on and on (and have) about God’s abundant care and mercy, but so many need tangible proof of its existence.  In this way, us Catholics have an inside edge because we can go to Mass and take part in the Eucharist, the actual body and blood of Jesus.  That is the same body and blood Our Savior gave willingly over to torture and death for the love of all humanity, past, present, and future, for all of time.  That is why I say it is hard to understand.  Who else could do that but God?  It is a selflessness that we are called to emulate, even if in our own small ways.  You see some of these small ways with Kirk.  While he and Molly are having dinner for the first time, she watches as he runs after a stranger who forgot her coat and refuses a tip from her husband.  That is a true kind of love that, as I strongly believe, attracts people to one another no matter their looks.

If there is any disappointing aspect of She’s Out of My League, it is that there is a lot of attention given to looks.  Then again, without this theme, the movie might not have worked as well.  Otherwise, there is some inappropriate material, but otherwise this one is a sneaky recommendation for adults.