The Boss
To quote this film…”You know what? I don’t need this!”
When I first saw the previews to this film I felt like it had potential…This faded away in the first ten minutes of it. Although Melissa McCarthy is exactly what you expect and it does have it’s couple of chuckles, The Boss is a film that lacked a soul.
The film starts by giving the viewer into the hardship of Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) as she is returned time after time to the orphanage by adopted parents. Although this is supposed to be set up to be a comedic reel, it just becomes a punch in the stomach, as you feel nothing but sadness for this child and takes the audience from a comedy mindset to a gloomy place instead. The child grows up to over compensate by caring about no one else but herself. Before we get a chance to see how Darnell makes her fortune she is arrested and sent to prison for insider trading. Although it does do a good job of making fun of “white collar” crimes, her character is homeless and broke which sets up the stage to once again have her fend for herself. Michelle finally realizes that she finally needs someone and calls upon her old assistant Claire (Kristen Bell) whom with young daughter five Darnell has what she has never had, a family.
All in all, The Boss has a few laughs, but for the majority of the film it goes from one-liners to slapstick comedy that unfortunately McCarthy is being known for. I was cheering for this film, but with just a few left field scenes that give the film its quirky stigma, like Darnell and Renault’s(Peter Dinklage) sword fight at the end of the film, it is crippled by its sketchy origins. The film never really finds steady footing and it ends up feeling like a long SNL sketch.
4/10
