The Boss
Director: Ben Falcone
Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage
Duration: 99 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

I was around halfway through the press screening of The Boss when a power cut hit; meaning I never got to see the end of the movie (print deadlines being what they are, I did not get the chance to watch it again) so I can’t offer a fully-formed opinion of it. However, I’d seen enough to get a pretty good idea that, sadly, this is another Melissa McCarthy comedy that misfires on many levels despite its leading lady firing on all cylinders.

McCarthy stars as Michelle Darnell, a self-made billionaire businesswoman who ends up completely broke after serving a short prison sentence for insider trading. Foisting herself upon her former PA, single mom Claire (Kristen Bell, the perfect straight foil to McCarthy’s outrageousness), it’s not long before Michelle thinks up an ambitious venture – recruiting schoolgirls to sell brownies on a large scale.

Roping in a reluctant Claire and Claire’s eager daughter Rachel, Michelle embarks on a journey that she hopes will once more make her a force to be reckoned with… while raking in the cash. They also have to contend with the sabotage attempts by Renault (Peter Dinklage), Michelle’s former lover and business rival.

The Boss follows the path of many a comedy before it, relying on a surplus of sex and toilet humour-laden gags, with tawdry behaviour and foul language

The film sets an amusing tone with its opening scene in 1975 as a car draws up in front of an orphanage; a little girl gets out and the car speeds away to the chagrined cry of “you can’t bring them back!” from the peeved nun who takes the girl back into her care. It’s a scene that repeats itself over the next 10 years, with the now teen Michelle sullenly and fiercely committing to make it in life on her own because “family sucks”.

It’s an attitude that has clearly served her as we cut to the present, where the now uber-successful Michelle gets the rock star treatment as she raps and dances to legions of adoring fans at an event celebrating her work – she’s certainly got the moves and the money.

Sadly, though, once the film proper sets in, it becomes clear that The Boss follows the path of many a comedy before it, relying on a surplus of sex and toilet humour-laden gags, with tawdry behaviour and foul language, the traits that colour the main character; and once more, following the likes of her roles in Identity Thief and Tammy, McCarthy has to contend with a character that is truly hard to like.

The pedestrian script is little more than a series of scenes tying its frail plot together, while trying to draw belly laughs from its audience. Yet, it rarely hits the mark – a street fight between a gaggle of women and teenage girls felt unnecessarily violent. A scene in which Michelle advises Claire what not to wear on a date ends up with the two poking and fondling each other’s breasts and went on way too long – feeling like nothing more than something to titillate the audience with. Whether things improved in the final third I can’t tell… although it seemed to be heading towards an ending as sweet and gooey as the brownies Michelle is selling, the message buried somewhere at the film’s core being that family, does not in fact, suck.

There are a couple of chuckle-some moments – the sight of Michelle being literally spit out of a camp-bed is admittedly funny; as are some of her put-downs of a snotty mum.

McCarthy is undoubtedly a force of nature. She has amazing presence that holds your attention, enough charisma to give away, killer timing, a self-deprecating approach to her comedy and engages in pratfalls that would make Buster Keaton proud.

Yet, the more you admire her capabilities, the more obvious it is that this is yet another missed opportunity for her. I was all fired up ready to remark on how McCarthy, an actor and comedian certainly worth her salt, is superb when working with well-written scripts and fully-formed characters (to wit Bridesmaids, Spy) so imagine my surprise to learn she is in fact one of The Boss’s writers, together with her husband Ben Falcone (who also directs) and Steve Mallory.

And it is a crushing disappointment that they could not come up with better and less obvious material than this thinly-sketched vehicle to exploit her remarkable talents.

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