Tammy

So I went into this movie with super low expectations. All I knew about it was that is a Melissa McCarthy vehicle where she goes on some sort of road trip. So I was a little surprised that I didn't find it all that bad. That was then I realised that it was supposed to be a comedy, it was then that I was disappointed.

Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is a woman who is at a crossroads in her life. She has just found out that her husband is cheating on her and has been fired from her job. Fed up with everything that is going on, she goes on a road trip with her grandmother Pearl (Susan Sarandon), who wants to visit Niagara Falls. Along the way, Tammy meets Bobby (Mark Duplass), who she falls for.

Tammy is a strange movie. It's not a full on laugh out loud comedy (although there are a few laughs), but it is neither a drama. It suffers from severe under-characterisation and you never get close to any of the characters. The story isn't too bad, I can see the concept actually happen, but the situations that Tammy finds herself in are just absurd (and not in the funny way).

This film has a crisis in casting. Whilst the part of Tammy was written for McCarthy (she did write the script after all), some of the main roles are extremely poorly cast. It's hard to believe that Susan Sarandon is McCarthy's grandmother, but even harder to grasp at the idea of Allison Janney being her mother (there is only a decade difference in their ages). Toni Collette and Nat Faxon appear in this movie, although they barely have any lines. The only good choices I could pick out were Kathy Bates and Sandra Oh as a lesbian couple. These two were the sweetest and most likeable characters in the film.

The comedy relies on McCarthy being a foul-mouthed woman, which is really old hat for her (she did it better in both Bridesmaids and The Heat). She has some skill doing slapstick work, but doesn't take advantage of the opportunities and instead attempts to swear her way into some laughs.

Verdict: An alright movie if you've got a lazy afternoon to spare (like I had), but I wouldn't recommend rushing out to see it.