The Boss

Dir: Ben Falcone

2016

*

I disliked Ben Falcone’s The Boss for many different reasons but overall I hated it because it was only half an idea. It’s as if they decided to have a basic premise and then chose to wing the rest. It’s quite an arrogant stance really. It is true that Melissa McCarthy has somehow still got an audience and can pull a crowd but where is the humour? I will always appreciate humour that doesn’t necessarily make me laugh and isn’t my type, but what was so funny here that makes the film deserved of the description comedy? Of course you don’t need to constantly tells jokes to make a film a comedy and neither do you always need to rely on slap-stick. There are many performers who are just funny, it’s in they’re bones, just a gesture can raise a smile but McCarthy ain’t one of those performers. It’s got to a point now where film makers are telling audiences that their film is funny and the audiences are believing them without question. We are living in particularly brain-dead times when a film such as The Boss isn’t totally rejected and ridiculed. Some people love it. End of days my friends. The shoddy premise sees McCarthy play a rich industry boss who is sent to prison for insider trading. The film is based on a character McCarthy created for the comedy troupe Groundlings which I can only imagine made more sense. The character doesn’t seem to be a parody of anyone in particular and is a cross between a high-flying business person and a mafia boss, without really being like either. The story begins properly as McCarthy’s character, Michelle Darnell, leaves prison having served her sentence. She’s ready to rebrand herself as America's latest sweetheart, but not everyone she worked with is so quick to forgive and forget. With nowhere to go and no one to scam, Michelle is forced to move in with former assistant Claire (Kristen Bell) and her young daughter, Rachel (Ella Anderson). Now at her lowest point, Michelle wastes no time in devising a winner-take-all plan to rebuild her empire which abuses the trust and kindness of Claire and Rachel. Things are made tougher for Michelle by the fact her former mentor (Kathy Bates – who plays a slightly older version of her) and former lover Renault, who still holds a heavy grudge towards her for their breakup. Universal was at first unable to decide on the gender of Michelle’s ex-lover. Before Peter Dinklage was finally cast, the studio also considered Oprah Winfrey, Jon Hamm and Sandra Bullock as possibilities. Again, the total lack of direction is mind-numbing. I’m guessing they went with Peter Dinklage because he is small and therefore funny, because small is funny. I don’t know what is more puzzling though: the fact that the film was green-lit and given a $29 million budget or that it ended up making $78.8 million at the box office. Although Kristen Bell, Kathy Bates and Peter Dinklage should have known better, they all escape the film relatively unharmed. Ben Falcone is clearly blinded by love, his wife (McCarthy) is everything in his eyes and in his mind her very presences is enough for a film to click/be funny/make money. He is of course wrong. Putting whether you find McCarthy funny or not (not in my case), there is never an excuse for not writing a script. That said, McCarthy did co-write the script, so one has to ask who loves her more, her husband or herself. It’s dreadful. I have nothing more to say about it.