Tammy Review
Thelma and Louise meets Falling Down.
I guess this movie is another example of the skill and power of studio marketing departments. I have seen the trailer for this one several dozen times and walked in fully expecting to see a hilarious Melissa McCarthy Bridesmaids-esque project with fun characters and ridiculous situations and instead I got…you know I don’t know what the hell I got. It wasn’t a comedy but it had comedic elements. It wasn’t a drama but at times it was damned depressing. In many of my reviews I like to talk about tone and the failure of a movie to maintain it (tone is something you specifically do not notice if it is maintained properly) and this film might well be the penultimate example of tonal failure.
This film reeks of vanity project in the same way my high school locker reeked of jock strap. Starring Melissa McCarthy. Written by Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone (husband of Melissa McCarthy). Directed by Ben Falcone (with no other directing credits). Produced by Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone. Did the two of them collaborate on the soundtrack and handle craft services? Melissa is an accomplished comedian and all around funny person but I guess that does not necessarily translate into the ability to write a script. It’s clear that after the success of Bridesmaids, the Heat, and Identity Thief someone thought she could just excrete a good movie with no oversight. At least the excreting part was accomplished successfully.
This is more evidence that the curse of the Hangover is still in effect in Hollywood. Everyone now looks at cheap to make rated R comedies in the same way a dingo eyes a baby and sees little dancing dollar signs in front of their eyes. Unfortunately just because a film fits into the same general category as a more successful film does not mean it is automatically going to hitch up to that success train. A good rated R comedy still needs to be good, and since this film is neither a good film nor really a comedy I guess I have to deem it a failure.
That is not to say it is truly worthless. It cost a measly $20 million to make and will no doubt make that up overseas regardless of it’s success here (other countries love to laugh at Americans). There are some funny moments (almost all of them in the first 10 minutes when Tammy gets fired and goes off on a comedic rampage) and both Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates added tremendously to the film. Honestly if this movie was meant to show that Melissa can show more range than a big dopey clown or sidekick I’d say well done as she actually manages to act.
However, the real failure again is in the tone. It is posted as a comedy and the first 10 minutes hold true to that but then bad stuff starts to happen to Tammy. You can’t really laugh at someone who just lost their job, destroyed their car, found her husband cheating, and in all ways had a mental breakdown. Sorry but that just isn’t funny. We don’t laugh at vulnerable people and Tammy spent most of the movie being more pathetic than anything else. All the really funny scenes from the trailers end up being given a tragic context that drains the humor and leaves us with a whoopie cushion at a funeral. The constant back and forth of being given a funny character to laugh at but then having to laugh at the fact that she thought her alcoholic grandmother had just died makes your brain hurt.
The story is of Tammy (Melissa McCarthy-Bridemaids, the Heat, Identity Thief) and her downward spiral. She starts off driving to work and hits a deer. She is then late to work and gets fired by her boss Keith (Ben Falcone-Bad Words, the Heat, What to Expect When You Are Expecting). She quits with all the comedy and style we would expect from her and storms off. However, on the way home her care burns up and she has to walk miles home, only to find her husband having an affair with the neighbor. She melts down and heads next door to her mothers.
There she flips out and wants to leave but has no car. Her grandmother (Susan Sarandon-Thelma and Louise, Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Big Wedding) offers to let her take her car if she can come along. Tammy agrees since grandma also has a ton of money. They hit the road with the theoretical destination being Niagara Falls but rapidly get sidetracked.
Tammy wrecks a jet ski in a scene that I guess was supposed to be funny but had me more clenching my butt cheeks. They have to buy it. 
They wander around and end up at a bar where Grandma picks up Earl (Gary Cole-Office Space, Pineapple Express, Talledega Nights) for a night of steamy sex after getting drunk off her ass. Tammy is stuck with Earls super hot son Bobby (Mark Duplass-the League, Safety Not Guaranteed, the Puffy Chair) and ends up sleeping on the sidewalk outside their hotel room (more hilarity). Meanwhile Grandma is drinking herself stupid and the two of them get arrested for mixing it up outside of a liqueur store (Bad Choices image courtesy of the cheap t shirt category). Grandma is starting to have serious health issues but gets pinched for having unproscribed Oxycotton and Tammy needs $1400 to bail her out and get her to a doctor. Her only choice is to rob the same chain that just fired her (this is the scene from the trailer and it’s way less funny once you know why she is doing it).
Anyway, more stuff happens. Kathy Bates shows up to save the movie and throw a huge lesbian party. Tammy gets into a fight with Granny and the next day thinks she’s dead. Even more stuff happens and in the end moves to the town with Bobby who likes her in spite of the fact that he looks like he just swallowed a bowl full of live goldfish the whole time.
The stars:
Well, the scenes that were funny were funny and when taken out of the context of the rest of the film (you know, like a trailer) were quite good. One star. I thought Kathy Bates was pretty awesome. One star. Susan Sarandon was pretty good too, and for all the films limitations it did show us that Melissa McCarthy can do more than be an obnoxious jerk (although there was plenty of that). One star. Total: three stars.
The black holes:
The lack of tone made me feel confused the whole time as to how I was supposed to be feeling. Am I supposed to be laughing or crying? Two black holes. Pacing from hell. Remember when I said Snowpiercer was 126 minutes that felt like 75? This film was 96 minutes that felt like about a month. One black hole. The romance between Tammy and Bobby had all the realism of one of those 60’s East German black and white cartoons. It really pulled me out of the movie. One black hole. At the end of the film you end up looking at the last hour and a half and saying “What was the point?” One black hole. Rated R for no reason other than language. I’m not even bitching about the lack of nudity. More like they just decided to go rated R and do the are minimum to annoy the MPAA (the lack of nudity was not an enhancement however). One black hole. Total: six black holes.
So three black holes. Just on the other side of crappy. I feel bad as I like Melissa and enjoyed her interview on the Howard Stern Show last week but this wasn’t her vehicle. Maybe next time hire an experience director instead of your husband. Worth seeing at all? I suppose but this thing has NetFlix written all over it. Don’t bother with paying for a theater. Date movie? Not really. The romance is super fake and the same issues that hurt your brain will hurt your dates as well. Bathroom break? Well, the lesbian party towards the end was kind of fun in a very Disney way so don’t miss that. Maybe the scene where Tammy is trying to get her food out of a malfunctioning vending machine? There is nothing funnier than a sad and pathetic woman who just got booted from her hotel room so her grandmother can have sex beating a machine to get her powdered donuts before falling asleep on some bricks.
Thanks for reading. More to see this weekend including E.T. the Extraterrestrial (what’s that? The title is actually Earth to Echo? Weird). Follow me on Twitter @NerdKungFu and post your comments here please. Also we just started up on Pintrest and I’m having fun there so check it out. Talk to you soon.
the Infamous Dave Inman
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