Through The Rear Window: Movie Review ... Tammy

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Movie Review ... Tammy

Melissa McCarthy can be an acquired taste. Known for using her portly visage as a conduit for low-brow comedy, her films have met with success. Whether her load-mouthed obnoxious broads equate to memorable characters is another thing. In Hollywood terms she has racked in the dollars where it counts. ‘Tammy’ uses much from her limited bag of tricks which should please her admirers.

Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is having a very bad day. Fired from her job and catching her cheating husband in the act, she decides to change her life. Wanting to take a road trip to escape her dramas, she enlists the help of her alcoholic grandmother Pearl (Susan Sarandon). Using her dollars to fund her journey, Tammy soon finds life on the highways is full of adventure and unexpected mishaps.

Using a road trip motif with Sarandon co-starring, ‘Tammy’ shares similarities with ‘Thelma and Louise’. Whilst the latter cemented Sarandon’s star-power, ‘Tammy’ sees her seriously slumming it. It’s sad seeing a performer of her calibre reduced to ‘feisty granny’ roles although that’s more to do with a mediocre script. Co-written by McCarthy and her husband, ‘Tammy’s director Ben Falcone, it’s a one note film quickly going nowhere.

The ‘enlightened journey’ Tammy travels has been done many times. There’s nothing fresh about the material with McCarthy’s character resorting to falling down and cursing just to raise a laugh. Unfortunately ‘Tammy’ is a laugh-free zone with its attempts at dramatic pathos doomed due to poor performances. The direction is appalling, the mix of humour and drama never works and the cast is wasted.

‘Tammy’ is a pretty boring movie. Predictable, crude and with an extremely unlikeable central character, it is difficult finding any good points. ‘Tammy’ is a straight to DVD movie with the big screen wasted in showing this unfunny comedic farrago.