The Boss
Directed by: Ben Falcone.
Written by: Ben Falcone & Melissa
McCarthy and Steve Mallory.
Starring: Melissa McCarthy (Michelle
Darnell), Kristen Bell (Claire), Peter Dinklage (Renault), Ella Anderson (Rachel),
Tyler Labine (Mike Beals), Kathy Bates (Ida Marquette), Cecily Strong (Dana
Dandridge), Mary Sohn (Jan Keller), Kristen Schaal (Scout Leader Sandy), Eva
Peterson (Chrystal), Timothy Simons (Stephan), Aleandra Newcomb (Mariana), Annie
Mumolo (Helen), Presley Coley (Hannah), Ben Falcone (Marty), Margo Martindale (Sister
Aluminata), Michael McDonald (Bryce Crean).
Melissa McCarthy is
one of the biggest movie stars in America right now – and deserves to be. She
has a unique comic persona, who is at her best the more unhinged, and off
script, she goes. She understands her appeal, and embraces it. Yet, I cannot
help but think that she is, at least to a certain extent, under estimating her
own skillset. More often than not, films starring McCarthy just aren’t very
good, that she keeps afloat almost singlehandedly, with her force of will. So
it is with The Boss – a film that, like her previous film Tammy, she co-wrote
with her husband, Ben Falcone, who also serves as director. McCarthy is almost
the sole reason to see the film – it’s a middling, mostly unfunny comedy about
a wealthy woman, Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) who goes to jail for insider
trading, loses everything – and when she gets out, starts to stay with her
former assistant, Claire (Kristen Bell) – and sets her sites on rebuilding her
empire. Her plan? To start her own version of the Girl Scouts, and cut into
their cookie sales.
Darnell is the type
of larger than life character that McCarthy specializes in. At her best,
McCarthy is able to find the humanity in these characters that in lesser hands
would be little more than a caricature. In order to do that however, the
screenplay has to give McCarthy something deeper to work with – which the
screenplay for The Boss never does. Darnell is over-the-top at the beginning,
and remains so throughout the film. Yes, the movie takes the expected path and
makes Darnell go from greedy and selfish to something resembling a sympathetic
character in the end. It’s an unconvincing transformation, but it’s hardly the
point of the film. The film exists to allow McCarthy several set pieces in
which she can rant and rave and carry on, and a few chances for physical
comedy. She does all this, and does it well to be sure. The film is at its best when it ignores
the story and simply allows McCarthy loose. The only other actor who comes
close to matching McCarthy is Peter Dinklage, who plays her rival, who is also
in love with her. Dinklage completely commits to his characters strange
insanity – and steals most of the scenes he’s in.
What is unfortunate about The Boss is that it spends far too much of its
time on everything else. Kristen Bell is a fine comic actress, but she is given
nothing to do as Claire except be a stick-in-the-mud. It’s the straight man
role, but rarely has a straight man been this boring. A love story subplot
between her and Tyler Labine goes nowhere and pretty much drags the movie to a
stop every time it starts. Slightly better are supporting performances by
Kristen Schaal and Annie Mumolo, as the soft spoken Girl Guides leader, and a
very loud mother respectively, but they are barely in the film.
The Boss certainly has its moments. McCarthy is talented enough that she’s
going to make you laugh at least a few times if she’s trying – and if nothing
else, she seems to be trying very, very hard. Yet I cannot help but think that
McCarthy, who after all co-wrote the movie, is underselling herself. She`s more
talented than The Boss allows her to be. Yes, she can go big and get laughs –
and she does. But there’s more to her than that – it’s there in a film like The
Nines, which she made before she was a movie star - and it’s something I wish
she'd tap into more often.
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