Melissa McCarthy has teamed with her husband, Ben Falcone (the air marshal from Bridesmaids), for the movie Tammy. Falcone directs, the duo co-wrote the film together and, of course, McCarthy stars in the title role and I can’t seem to locate the humor in what I’m assuming is supposed to be a comedy.
Am I supposed to laugh at the introduction of Tammy, as she’s driving down the road, shoveling Doritos into her mouth before ramming into a deer? Am I supposed to laugh when she is fired from her job at a fast food restaurant, after which she contaminates the food and stuffs hamburgers in her pockets only to stuff a few in her face on her tearful drive home? Perhaps I’m supposed to laugh as she pines for Cheetos, stalks sugared donuts or as she strives to hop on a fast food counter in her attempt to rob the place. I guess the question I’m getting at is, am I supposed to laugh because Melissa McCarthy is overweight? If not, am I supposed to comment on it at all?
As a reviewer or merely an audience member, am I supposed to comment or think twice about the disheveled, dirty, grotesque appearance of McCarthy as Tammy because it takes about an hour into this punishing 96 minute movie for them to ever once make her look presentable. I understand I’m watching a movie about a woman that supposedly is having a tough go at it, having lost her job only to go home and find her husband (Nat Faxon) cheating on her with the next door neighbor (Toni Collette), but given the circumstance all I can wonder is why Tammy’s appearance doesn’t match the home life she apparently has. Her husband is cleaned up, their house is spotless, but it’s almost as if she’s been kept there as a wild animal, allowed to leave to go to work and that’s about it.
Upon realizing her husband is cheating on her she grabs her things in a piece of luggage, which promptly falls apart, a sight gag not representative of her surroundings. She then walks two doors down to her mother’s (Allison Janney) house where her grandmother Pearl (Susan Sarandon) also lives. The house is nice, her mother is put together, but we soon learn her grandmother has a drinking problem (meant to be funny) and a little bit of cabin fever. The two hit the road for one of the least funny road trips you’ll ever see on the big screen.
Grandma Pearl has sex with a random guy at a bar and ultimately locks Tammy out of their motel room where she must sleep on the doorstep (not sad, funny, remember this is a comedy, stick with me here). The next stop is, well, I’m not sure… they end up in jail somewhere and suddenly stop at a friend of Pearl’s (played by Kathy Bates) for a lesbian July 4th party after which Pearl is thought to be dead. Yeah, the comedy is just oozing out of this one, I always love me a dead, alcoholic grandma comedy. It’s why I always go to funerals and AA meetings when I’m in need of a good laugh.
I don’t understand the point of this movie’s existence. I don’t know what I’m supposed to find funny and I’m not interested in sitting down and watching an overweight woman continually stuff junk food down her throat in the name of comedy. That’s not funny to me and I find it somewhat galling that McCarthy and her husband think McCarthy’s comedic talents lie solely in the fact she’s overweight and can tease her hair into a ratty mess to the point she looks like she’s a piece of roadside trash. What’s even more galling is that’s the joke. Look how terrible we made her look! Isn’t that funny! Oh look, she loves Cheetos! Ha ha ha!
By the film’s end you’ll have to sit me down and explain the point of it all because there comes a point where this movie devolves into tears, insults and the possibility of a dead grandma, all before a final trip to Niagra Falls where… everything turns out okay?
It’s one thing for McCarthy to waste her talents on movies written and produced by others, but when she’s teaming with her own husband and this is the best they can come up with it’s a sad state of affairs. I’d like to think McCarthy’s fanbase has more confidence in her talents than even she does and hopefully one day she’ll wise up and figure it out for herself.
