2015 action comedy, dir. Paul Feig, Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham;
IMDb /
allmovie. In a James
Bond-style world, when all the CIA's field agents are compromised,
it's up to an analyst to go undercover and look for a missing nuclear
weapon.
There are some really good ideas here. Of course all those field
agents are men; of course they think that the analyst can't do the job
even if she came top in the training; indeed, one of them has very
clearly been working on her insecurities to push her into a support
role purely in order to enhance his own awesomeness. There's even a
suggestion, though it's never carried through, of the invisibility of
middle-aged women, especially to the sort of opponent who's expecting
a handsome superspy.
But this whisper of a welcome feminist message is overwhelmed by the
comedy of insult against McCarthy's character. I don't just mean the
diegetic insults, where people within the film's world have no respect
for her; that may not be welcome, but it is at least part of the
story. It's what the director and scriptwriter do to her character:
tee hee, fatty has to ride a little moped. Tee hee, she faints (and
vomits) at the sight of injury. She's unattractive. She's utterly
unable to pass for someone who should be in an expensive restaurant.
She gets her clothes caught on things. She makes personal remarks at
entirely the wrong moments. Oh, also she's fat and unattractive and
fat. All of these things are regarded as cause for laughter.
Still, at least there's a female villain whose villainy is not tied to
her sex, played by Rose Byrne doing her best to put some quiet menace
into a frankly underwritten role. And the protagonist is allowed to
develop some actual competence, towards the end of the film. But every
time things start to get interesting, it's time to bring everything to
a halt for another "funny" moment: ooh, Jason Statham is swearing a
lot. (I enjoy Jason Statham when he gets to crack the grim facade and
play a human being; he doesn't do that here.) Someone's eating a cake
that a mouse has defæcated on. I know how they feel.
Recommended by
MaryAnn Johanson
(see, we don't always agree).
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