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Title: Tammy (2014)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Melissa McCarthy | ... | ||
| Susan Sarandon | ... | ||
| Kathy Bates | ... | ||
| Allison Janney | ... | ||
| Dan Aykroyd | ... | ||
| Mark Duplass | ... | ||
| Gary Cole | ... | ||
| Nat Faxon | ... | ||
| Toni Collette | ... | ||
| Sandra Oh | ... | ||
| Ben Falcone | ... | ||
| Sarah Baker | ... | ||
| Rich Williams | ... | ||
| Steve Little | ... |
Jet Ski Rental Guy
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| Dakota Lee | ... |
Kathleen
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Tammy, who was recently fired from a Topper Jack's fast food restaurant, returns home only to find her husband enjoying a romantic meal with the neighbor. She quickly packs her necessities, and travels down three houses to her parent's home. Upon denied use of her mom's car to drive to Niagara Falls, she quickly resorts to an "ailing" grandmother, who also lives in the home...Only instead of traveling alone, Grandma Pearl wants in on the road trip. After realizing Grandma Pearl has the funds, they hit the road. Pearl soon proves to be quite the alcoholic despite her diabetes, and Tammy quickly turns into the "baby-sitter." From finding love in a bar to robbing a Topper Jack's in order to bail Pearl out of jail,the quirky adventure will have you finding yourself riding along for the misadventures of Tammy. Written by Mayor_G
Melissa McCarthy has risen to the forefront of female cinema comics, and I want to believe she deserves her place. Is she a better comedienne than Tina Fey, Amy Pohler, or Jenny Slate? No. She has secured her place ever since Bridesmaids as a potty-mouthed plus size who throws her weight and mouth around the screen like a weapon threatening anyone who thinks she is not comical.
She's not always so, at least in Tammy, in which she plays an underachieving rebel losing her fast food job and taking to the road with her grandmother, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), to escape that job loss and the loss of her husband, Greg (Nat Faxon), to neighbor Missi (Toni Collette).
Thelma and Louise this Tammy is not: Besides the regularity of curse words (McCarthy is one of the writers) that substitute for wit, the insults to seniors and fast-food workers are gratuitous. Tammy's 38 days in jail are treated like a light diversion, not the result of a serious fast-food robbery. I must remember, however, not to apply standards of common sense to comedy.
So it seems the writers have a difficult time deciding what tone-- between the comedy about a rotund lady on the lam and the serious issue of alcoholism. It seems they wanted both hilarity and poignancy—mostly they have neither.
One need look only at much better writing in other contemporary buddy films like the Jump Streets, where Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill have lines that bite and soothe and a chemistry that Sarandon and McCarthy strive for but don't always achieve. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid's chemistry and wit are superior, so too Sarandon and Davis in Thelma and Louise, and by the way, McCarthy and Bullock in Heat.
However, McCarthy suffers by comparison with heavyweights like Latifa, Kathy Bates, and maybe Roseanne Barr, who is a more direct comparison and at times better able to show range.
Susan Sarandon's portrayal of the alcoholic grandma is rarely humorous or poignant. Her flirting with a guy of a certain age is a good bit for her youthful old age, but the connection is forced under the umbrella of cute for an oldster.
Tammy is not a keeper in the buddy genre; perhaps McCarthy will engage Bullock again for a better brand of banter.