The Boss
Directed by: Ben Falcone
Written by: Melissa McCarthy & Ben Falcone & Steve Mallory
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Kathy Bates, Tyler Labine, Timothy Simons, Peter Dinklage, Ella Anderson, Cecily Strong, Kristen Schaal
Comedy - 99 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 6 Apr 2016
Written by: Melissa McCarthy & Ben Falcone & Steve Mallory
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Kathy Bates, Tyler Labine, Timothy Simons, Peter Dinklage, Ella Anderson, Cecily Strong, Kristen Schaal
Comedy - 99 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 6 Apr 2016
Sure, all of Melissa McCarthy’s characters are different in name, style, and occupation, but take away the trappings and what you have left is a physical prat-falling mess who goes loud and obnoxious for laughs. There was puppy-obsessed Megan in Bridesmaids, the felonious Diana in Identity Theft, Tammy, perhaps the worst leading character in a decade, bumbling spy Susan Cooper, and now Michelle Darnell, one of the richest women in the world who will scream insults about your dead wife. The Boss, produced, written, and directed by everyone involved in Tammy, is a one note comedic sine wave; Michelle starts from nothing, gets rich, goes back to nothing, rinse and repeat. I laughed at the most shocking moments but the rest of The Boss is belabored and even boring.
The Michelle Darnell character was a sketch comedy act from Melissa McCarthy’s days with The Groundlings, the famous Los Angeles comedy troupe. Now with the frame of an entire film to fill, Michelle lacks a dimension or two to carry it. Set to obvious tunes, young Michelle keeps getting returned to her orphanage because three sets of adoptive parents can’t stand her. Michelle’s lesson learned here is families are not to be trusted and will only hold you back. I wonder if this mindset will produce a misunderstanding later on and turn into Michelle’s major obstacle to overcome.
The Michelle Darnell character was a sketch comedy act from Melissa McCarthy’s days with The Groundlings, the famous Los Angeles comedy troupe. Now with the frame of an entire film to fill, Michelle lacks a dimension or two to carry it. Set to obvious tunes, young Michelle keeps getting returned to her orphanage because three sets of adoptive parents can’t stand her. Michelle’s lesson learned here is families are not to be trusted and will only hold you back. I wonder if this mindset will produce a misunderstanding later on and turn into Michelle’s major obstacle to overcome.
Cut ahead a few decades and Michelle headlines arenas with fireworks, choreographed moves with T-Pain, and assures the audience that if they follow her program to wealth, they will all be “rich as fuck!” Michelle gets busted for insider trading, does some time at a white collar prison straight out of Arrested Development, and is back on the bottom again begging her old assistant, Claire (Kristen Bell, Zootopia), for a place to sleep. Claire is The Boss’s straight man. She must stand still and visually act shocked as Michelle does crazy things like get spray tanner all over the bathroom and fight the pull out sofa bed.
Michelle explains to Claire’s pre-teen daughter, Rachel (Ella Anderson), that “white collar crime does not count.” We were all thinking it and Michelle comes right out and says the world embraced Martha Stewart when she got busted, why don’t they embrace her? Well, Martha Stewart doesn’t yell at a widower calling his recently deceased wife a whore who fucked the entire IT department, even the weird guys. Michelle was not a very nice person when she was on top and I’m not sure she ever receives the awakening we all assume is coming to realize how she used to be. Even though Michelle is now broke, she is still obnoxious and awful.
Yet, even this predictable, eye-rolling script breaks out of the doldrums a few times. There is an Anchorman-esqe gang fight between two sets of girl scouts that is unbelievable in the amount of violence the small girls inflict on one another. Unlike Anchorman, there are no grenades or tridents, but there are enough extreme body blows that not all of those girls are walking away from the melee. Soon enough though, there is Melissa McCarthy falling down the stairs again or getting a numb face when she eats fugu at the sushi place.
Now you’re asking about Peter Dinklage; didn’t you see him in the previews? I’m avoiding him because he’s just a cartoon and a close cousin to the asshole he played last year in Pixels. McCarthy’s real world husband, Ben Falcone, is back to direct and also co-wrote the screenplay. Granted, all of Falcone’s work here is better than Tammy, but earning the title ‘knock off Troop Beverly Hills’ should not be taken as a complement. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the gentleman just nominated for Best Director for The Big Short and also behind the two Anchorman films, produced and you can feel The Boss is in their wheelhouse because the comedy is in similar territory, just a league or three below their usual fare.
I believe Melissa McCarthy is at her best as a supporting character. She was the funniest maid in Bridesmaids because her limited screen time set her up for big laughs. She played semi-serious in St. Vincent and even better, second fiddle to Bill Murray. When you put McCarthy front and center in every scene all you give the audience is sensory overload. Chris Farley’s shtick was diluted by the presence of David Spade. McCarthy lacks a David Spade here. Kristen Bell is here for the plot, not to be funny or check McCarthy in any way and in the end, that’s what will make a funny Melissa McCarthy film, firm checks and balances.
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