"Tammy" Review

Title: Tammy

Directed by: Ben Falcone

Screenplay by: Ben Flacone and Melissa McCarthy

Year: 2014


I saw the trailer quite a few times for Tammy and I just felt that this film would not be very good. It looked like Melissa McCarthy was going to play the same character she always plays and I just wasn't very interested in it. However, my father was and because I chose the last film we saw (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes the day before) he got to choose Tammy. So, how did that turn out?

Tammy stars Melissa McCarthy as Tammy, a woman whose life is really in shambles. She's lost her job, her husband, pretty much everything. She meets up with her grandmother who has $6,700 and, like Tammy, wants to leave the city. So now we have our road trip film...kind of.

Melissa McCarthy has, unfortunately, been typecast. Every role she plays is the same. I'll admit that she plays it well but it's gotten to the point where I would like to see her do more. I would love to see her in a Law and Order episode. McCarthy needs to add variety to her filmography. Susan Sarandon is good as the grandmother and hands down the best character of the film. I'm not saying that it was a great character, but the best one in the movie for certain. Mark Duplass plays the main love interest for Tammy, Bobby. Duplass plays him as a naturally nice guy but he is just so forgettable. Whenever he came onto the screen I thought to myself "Oh yeah! I forgot he was in this film." Kathy Bates is good at least and she actually shares a rather nice moment with Tammy that I will get into later. The rest of the cast is not even worth mentioning as they all play forgettable and hollow characters. Many of these actors were just wasted on this film, especially Dan Aykroyd. What is he doing in the film? What is his purpose? Why did they need him? He's barely in the movie and when he is, yes he gives a good performance for his simple character, but they didn't need someone with Aykroyd's talent to play the role.

The trailers for Tammy really misrepresented the movie. Much like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Edge of Tomorrow, the actual film surprised me, but unlike those movies, Tammy did it in a bad way. I already thought this film was going to be bad, I just didn't think it would turn out to be this bad. First of all, Tammy is marketed as a straight up comedy. There are two issues with this. Firstly, this is equal parts drama and comedy, not just a pure comedy. Secondly, I did not find this film funny at all. I am not lying when I say that this movie did not make me laugh once. Not a single time. When a comedy is not funny at all, something is seriously wrong. The humor just doesn't work. It's all stupid humor that tries too hard to make the audience laugh. And if the "Jump Street" series has showed us anything, it's that silly, stupid humor can work. Tammy is simply not funny.

I want to talk about the most advertised scene in the trailers: the robbery. So Tammy has to rob a fast food restaurant in order to get some money that she needs. But what happens just before the robbery is inexplicable. As Tammy walks towards the fast food place, she begins dancing...for no reason. Yes the scene is done in slow motion and a rap song begins playing, but neither are actually in the world of the film. In terms of what is happening within the actual movie, Tammy is just dancing in the parking lot for no reason. This was a forced method of attempting to get laughs from the audience and was a completely unnecessary moment.

However, Tammy is not just a comedy, it also has its roots in drama. I was genuinely surprised at the dramatic elements of the film. Not that the drama was good or anything, but the way the movie was marketed did not suggest the dramatic influence at all. Personally, I preferred the drama to the comedy. No, the drama is not good but unlike the humor, it has its moments. One of the most notable moments is when Kathy Bates' character, Lenore, has a quiet, somewhat touching moment with Tammy. Small moments like these are sprinkled throughout the film which shows a bit of quality. However, the rest of the drama seems forced and just unconvincing.

*SPOILERS AHEAD* One scene in particular I want to bring up is the "death" scene. So Tammy had an argument with her grandmother Pearl during a lesbian party and the next day, Tammy goes to apologize but because her grandmother won't wake up, she believes her to be dead. Now, this scene could have gone with the whole "the last thing I said to her was an insult" which I'll admit is cliché but it does feel like a real problem. Instead, we have Tammy crying over the death, which could work, if it wasn't so forced. The grandmother is a plot device to get emotion out of Tammy and get her character to change. We are then shown that the grandmother is actually alive and all is right with the world again.

*SPOILER FREE* Tammy is an awful movie. Truly it is. It fails as a comedy and surprises audiences by incorporating quite a bit of drama. But the drama doesn't work too well as a whole. The cast is the best part of the film as they give good performances but the script is just so awful that many characters fall short and come across as shallow. I will say though, I never felt bored. I don't know why, but as bad as it all was, I was never bored with the film. Tammy is a very forgettable film and definitely not a good comedy.

Grade: D