Originally under the working titles of Ticket to Ride and then The Post-Grad Survival Guide,[4][5] the film was released on August 21, 2009,[6] to a critical and commercial failure.

In addition to her optimistic father Walter, who wants to do everything by himself, her mother Carmella, who carefully administrates the short resources of the household, and younger brother Hunter, who aspires to race in a boxcar derby, her eccentric grandmother Maureen arrives, accompanied by her ever-present oxygen tank.

Meanwhile, Ryden reveals to her family that she has an interview scheduled the following week for her dream job as an assistant editor at the prestigious publishing company Happerman and Browning in Los Angeles, and that she has even found a fabulous loft that she plans to rent.

En route to the job interview, Ryden gets her car into a collision with a truck and when the driver departs without giving her his insurance information, she is forced to walk to Happerman and Browning.

After unsuccessfully attempting to contact Adam to apologize, she finally, in a grand gesture, drives a borrowed ice cream truck to where he is playing a game of basketball, reminding him of his earlier advice to her that an Eskimo Pie can solve any dilemma.

The site's consensus states: "A lightweight, unambitious comedy, Post Grad features fine actors that can do little with its middling, uninspiring script.

[9] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.[10] Peter Debruge of Variety magazine wrote: "As fiction characters go, Ryden seems as dull as they come, making it hard to muster much sympathy for her plight".