By Kyle Osborne
To paraphrase an old show biz axiom: Slip on a banana peel and fall on your bum? That’s comedy. Slip on a banana peel, fall and crack your skull open and start bleeding? That’s tragedy.
Melissa McCarthy’s new comedy “Tammy”, which she and her husband, Ben Falcone, co-wrote, and which he directs, has a downbeat tone. It misfires so often and so egregiously that my quote for the poster would read: “It’s The Feel Bad Comedy Of The Year.”
McCarthy plays Tammy, a fast food worker ( Really? Is that still funny all by itself—that someone works at a fast food place?) who loses her job, and goes home early to find that her husband is apparently cheating on her with the next door neighbor. So she drives a few doors down to her Mom’s house, where Mom isn’t entirely happy to see her either. So far, so bad.
Tammy needs a car so she can get away from it all. Her Grandmother has a car and wants to hit the road, too. And even though Tammy doesn’t like her Grandmother, she can’t escape that it’s a package deal, so the two hit the road together where the unfunny continues—only this time it’s not funny while, you know, they’re “on the road.”
Melissa McCarthy is, by all accounts, a lovely person—why does she keep playing obnoxious characters?
Susan Sarandon, also not funny, doesn’t help to counter-balance things, and so we plod along with them from one bummer to another. Tammy breaks a jet ski, Tammy has to sleep outside, Tammy doesn’t seem to notice that she’s not attractive as she thinks she is, hardee-har-har.
There are about 4 or 5 laughs and every single one of those come from no-name character actors in bit parts, who just happen to nail their scenes, including McCarthy’s husband. The two employees whom Tammy robs at her old job are hilarious in their brief appearance.
Oh, there is one character actor with a recognizable name, and an Oscar—Kathy Bates is pretty great in the movie’s only understated performance as a lesbian ( I mention this because the movie makes a big deal about it) with a heart of gold and some much needed wisdom.
Finally, and I didn’t want to have to talk about this, but we all know that McCarthy is overweight, right? But why does that always have to play into her different characters’ plot lines? Can’t she just be? Can’t she have her charms and her sense of humor without references to the food she has eaten or that she can’t jump up on a counter because she’s fat?
It was said that Chris Farley feared that if he ever lost weight, he wouldn’t be as funny. The same was said for John Candy and John Belushi. How sad and ridiculous.
I hope that, regardless of her present or future weight, McCarthy can get out of roles that use her size as an easy comedic crutch. She’s much too talented for that.
And yet, she wrote this role herself. And that bums me out. Kinda like this movie did.
“Tammy” is rated R for language and adult situations. It gets 1 1/2 Out of 4 Stars.
Its not often that a great review of a bad movie not only steers you away from wasting time with something not worth it but gives a nudge wink to the actor that needs the insight into whats not working.
Nicely done and thanks for taking one for the team.