FLIX!
I saw this movie shortly after it opened, and I deliberately waited to get a feel of what everyone else, critics included, thought about it. I know what I thought and you're going to see that here, but I wanted to see if I was going to be going along with everyone else or be the lone voice crying in the wilderness. Turns out I'm neither.
What is it about Melissa McCarthy that is so darned lovable? Well for one thing, she's an enormous talent. And before any of you snicker at the use of the word enormous in regard to her, think about how much more of a struggle her career has been for her. As a person that is overweight too, I know how difficult it sometimes is. When you're "fat" your opinion doesn't matter. People don't see you. At the mall, you get looked through, you don't count. When you sit down at a job interview, you'd better be pretty spectacular, because you automatically have to overcome "slob and lazy" whereas other thin interviewees don't. So this has been a struggle that she has somehow overcome. I say Brava, Missy! In Hollywood, thin is an unspoken must.
Like I said, she's still lovable. There is a sincerity in what she does that comes through. But let's get back to TAMMY.
Tammy was written by Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone who is also the director on this project. Tammy is a hard working middle class woman who has had to work in a fast food restaurant. One day on her way to work she is in an accident and hits a deer and her head on the windshield. Her car is seriously damaged, but still she somehow gets to work, and comes in with blood still trickling down her forehead. The restaurant manager, usually a person who couldn't be successful in any other environment, calls her in to his office/condiment storage area, to fire her because she's late. She goes home and discovers her husband has cooked a meal for the neighbor woman who he's having an affair with. In a huff, Tammy packs a few things, and enraged, leaves. She goes two doors down to her parents house. One thing leads to another and this turns into a "buddy picture." Tammy somehow agrees to drive her Grandma (Susan Sarandon) to see Niagara Falls. And here we go.
Tammy and Grandma stop somewhere in Louisville, Kentucky and end up in a bar. Grandma likes to hit the bottle. In the course of this, they pick up a couple of guys. Grandma picks up Earl (Gary Cole) and Tammy doesn't really pick up Bobby (Mark Duplass) because it turns out, he is a legit gentleman.
Unfortunately Tammy has to sleep outside of the motel room because Earl and Granny are on the inside of the room. And the story goes from there. They meet up with a lesbian couple and at a party at the lesbian's house, everything comes to a head.
There are those that will dis this movie because "all the best parts were in the trailer." I don't agree.
I liked this movie. It was real. It nailed the life of the middle class in a way that the snobby Hollywood elite will never understand. The whole Tammy character was way over the heads of most Hollywood execs and every other rich-ass movie critic, over 40K a year snob. It's only because they've never been there is that they don't get it. This was great stuff.....okay good stuff.
What can I tell you that was good about this movie? Tammy, Granny, Bobby, Earl, Cheating Husband, Cheating Neighbor, Mother of Tammy (Allison Janney), and lesbian Lenore (Kathy Bates) are all terrific. It's hard to beat terrific. And and a big part of that folks is the direction they were given. Ben Falcone, being a film director is like being a sports coach. When they win, that team was great!, when they lose, the coach was a moron! So you are bound to suffer here.
But why? Why other critics? What was so bad about this? Please enlighten me. Please overcome your weight prejudice for a minute and enlighten me. Did this movie hit it out of the park? Not even close. Did it break new ground and box office records? No. But was it the horrible picture you all described? No.
This was fun and entertaining for however long it ran, and whenever that happens I call that a success. I can't say that about the last three pieces of crap Star Wars pictures all the other critics gratuitously drooled over. And people lined up then to subjected to unabashed marketing. But I digress.
This was not the best comedy I saw this summer, but it wasn't the worst thing ever either. Give Melissa a break fat haters. She's funny. She's talented. She has amazing feel and delivery. And she got Bobby in the end.
Grade: C+
