Tammy: Fora de Controle

I really enjoy the physical comedy of Melissa McCarthy and her film Tammy in which she plays the starring role had potential but did not live up to my own personal expectations. The story line was written by the husband and wife team of Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy so they have no one to blame. I am assuming the inexperience of the writer/director Ben Falcone had a lot to do with the film petering out halfway through it.

Heck, they even had the reputable star and original Louise (Susan Srandon) from the classic 1991 Thelma & Louise road trip film playing Tammy's grandmother who fronts the money and her own vehicle for the Grandma and Granddaughter road trip gone wrong.

I was so looking forward to being entertained by Ms. McCarthy and Ms. Sarandon but unfortunately I was disappointed. My advice to Miss McCarthy was leave the husbandry to your husband Ben Falcone, and leave the directing to a seasoned and proven director such as a Ridley Scott or a Clint Eastwood both who have directed successful road trip films.

I can only provide a less than stellar 5 out of 10 IMDb rating.

After Tammy had a bad day combo of getting fired and caught her husband cheating, she goes to take a runaway trip. But since she lacks money and a car, she urges to borrow them from her grandma Pearl, who then insisted that she joins Tammy. The pair gets crazy on their trip, purchasing a broken jet ski in process, while from time to time Pearl reminisce about her past stories and tell them to Tammy. The catch of the trip for Tammy is that Pearl is secretly a heavy alcoholic, and lustful, despite her obvious danger from diabetes. One night at a bar the pair meet father and son Earl and Bobby. Pearl and Earl hooks right up, leaving Tammy alone outside for the night. The next morning Tammy gets infuriated and leaves Pearl while she gets drunk. When Tammy returns to her, they get arrested due to disturbing public peace. Pearl bails Tammy out.

That night, feeling guilty, Tammy resorts to robbing a branch of Topper Jack, a fast food brand where she was employed. It turns out that Pearl had contacted Earl to bail her out. So the next day Pearl and Tammy returns the robbed money. Pearl then contacts her friends Lenore and Susanne. Lenore then ditches the car Tammy and pearl uses to cover tracks of the robbery, but they bring the jet ski. Eventually they give a "Viking funeral" to the jet ski at a night party at Lenore's. The next day the police come due to the neighbors complaining about a burning jet ski. That's when they made it about Tammy. Afetr some time Tammy gets out of jail. When she gets home, her mother tells her that they put Pearl in a retirement home. Angered, Tammy rushes to the home trying to free Pearl. To Tammy's surprise Pearl is happy where she is. But they still go to Niagara Falls, the original destination of their trip.

The story is actually based on a quite uncommon premise of having a runaway trip after going through a low point in life. The movie doesn't really develop the entire story suitably. It feels like there are some things missing here and there. The pace is not well set, where, starting from the deer crash, we have the first twenty to thirty minutes in a rather fast pace. Yet it slows down, starting about the conversation in front of the eagle, and stays that way for a long duration. And after that, the pace doesn't really recover. It makes the mood of the movie feels rather awkward.

The jokes feels rather off because there are many great laughs from the dialog, but there is little to none of rather physical or practical joke. Well, compared to the last time I saw Melissa McCarthy in The Heat (2013), Tammy (2014) has way less of those crazy practical jokes. I bring this up because I do think there are many spots which are capable to be filled with some practical laughs here and there.

The acting is a so-so job in overall. McCarthy still did her loud, raunchy and wild character as she almost always do. Susan Sarandon provides some extra laughs, especially on the scenes of Pearl and Earl. Kathy Bates gives an adequate supporting cast acting as well as Gary Cole and Mark Duplass.

My final say that Tammy is only worth a 5 out of 10 score. Although it is a good laugh most of the time, and it can be a good entertainment, but it definitely can't be included in the family movie category due to the harsh language. Also the unstable pave building makes this movie loses it.

Comedian Aisha Tyler once stated that comedians should take the first punch during their stand-up/hosting/entertaining performances. Making fun of oneself is more amicable and less controversial than reviling any group of people right off the bat. In my life today, someone cited Melissa McCarthy as a comedian. I originally concurred with the classification, but the more thought I infused into that labeling, the more I dissent it. McCarthy is not Tina Fey, Ellen Degeneres, or Amy Poehler; she began as an actress and continues her career as one. The "comedian" excuse does not apply.

In "Tammy", McCarthy does not only censure herself for the initial stages of the film, but tries to fly the entire film on string of self embarrassment. The saddest thought from my viewing of this film: McCarthy is not only selecting roles like Tammy, but she's creating them for herself. (McCarthy co-wrote the film's screenplay and is directly responsible for the material she has to act out.)

McCarthy and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon are faced with the most screen time in "Tammy" and each contribute more as actors than the script does as a narrative. McCarthy's hysterically brazen screen presence is the film's true source of humor, but I can't help but wonder if McCarthy would be open to revisiting authentic characters like she used to portray in "Gilmore Girls", which would replace her gimmicky, stereotypical roles like Tammy. Susan Sarandon, a goddess of her generation, keeps putting herself out there in whatever script she can get her hands on and we still pity her. As Tammy's grandmother, she at least straps on her acting gear and succeeds with a few lovely moments, but frankly her talent is not justified nor is it utilized properly.

For a project of such a low caliber, "Tammy" attracted a surplus of remarkably talented actors for brief, unflattering roles. The roster includes Gary Cole, Dan Aykroyd, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, Kathy Bates and Allison Janney (who took time out of her career best year on television shows "Girls" and "Masters of Sex" to make time for an extended cameo in "Tammy"). Maybe McCarthy charmed these award winners with friendship to convince them "Tammy" was a worthwhile project. At any rate, it looks like they all had fun.

At best, "Tammy" is a cute flick to see with silly friends looking to laugh at things that probably would not be as funny if everyone accessorized their theater-going wardrobe with their thinking caps. McCarthy owns her figure and the expected judgment, but what makes "Tammy" funny is the facial expressions and enunciation McCarthy uses when reciting witless lines of dialogue. Especially in the film's first act, "Tammy" did acquire some laughter on my behalf. (Now whether I was laughing with it or at it is another story...)

At worst, the film is nothing more than an hour and a half of McCarthy making an a$s out of herself. Unclear and unrealistic characterization, expedient character growth for the leading goon, erratic moments of failed poignancy, and poor writing that almost feels like comedic improvising are some of the many wretched qualities present in the film. McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone, the co-writer and director of "Tammy" shoot blank after blank from their comedic firearm.

* / * * * *

Melissa McCarthy has risen to the forefront of female cinema comics, and I want to believe she deserves her place. Is she a better comedienne than Tina Fey, Amy Pohler, or Jenny Slate? No. She has secured her place ever since Bridesmaids as a potty-mouthed plus size who throws her weight and mouth around the screen like a weapon threatening anyone who thinks she is not comical.

She's not always so, at least in Tammy, in which she plays an underachieving rebel losing her fast food job and taking to the road with her grandmother, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), to escape that job loss and the loss of her husband, Greg (Nat Faxon), to neighbor Missi (Toni Collette).

Thelma and Louise this Tammy is not: Besides the regularity of curse words (McCarthy is one of the writers) that substitute for wit, the insults to seniors and fast-food workers are gratuitous. Tammy's 38 days in jail are treated like a light diversion, not the result of a serious fast-food robbery. I must remember, however, not to apply standards of common sense to comedy.

So it seems the writers have a difficult time deciding what tone-- between the comedy about a rotund lady on the lam and the serious issue of alcoholism. It seems they wanted both hilarity and poignancy—mostly they have neither.

One need look only at much better writing in other contemporary buddy films like the Jump Streets, where Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill have lines that bite and soothe and a chemistry that Sarandon and McCarthy strive for but don't always achieve. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid's chemistry and wit are superior, so too Sarandon and Davis in Thelma and Louise, and by the way, McCarthy and Bullock in Heat.

However, McCarthy suffers by comparison with heavyweights like Latifa, Kathy Bates, and maybe Roseanne Barr, who is a more direct comparison and at times better able to show range.

Susan Sarandon's portrayal of the alcoholic grandma is rarely humorous or poignant. Her flirting with a guy of a certain age is a good bit for her youthful old age, but the connection is forced under the umbrella of cute for an oldster.

Tammy is not a keeper in the buddy genre; perhaps McCarthy will engage Bullock again for a better brand of banter.

Another reviewer did write that as his summary and I would agree with that. You don't have to love Melissa (not only main role, but also script writing duties apparently as IMDb states), but if you hate her, this movie is not for you. It's a character that has a basic concept she has played in other movies too. So you'll know if you like that or not. But you get an added Susan Sarandon to that (amongst other really good actors).

Putting this group together was genius and everyone is pulling their weight. You still have to be able to like the humor/jokes they are spitting, otherwise you'll be left empty. The movie is predictable even if at first it seems not to have a goal it wants to reach. It still has quite some passages that could be better and not everything is completely convincing. But the movie itself is a nice watch overall