Scarlett Johansson is one of the greatest gifts to the SF
umbrella that any self-respecting geek could ever ask for. Even if the merit of
the works can be debated to the ends of the Earth like Ghost In The Shell and
Under The Skin, her turns as part of the MCU stable and even Lucy have secured
her place as an actress who is right at home with genre
films. She’s even gone beyond live-action work with some honestly unprecedented
voice work for Her and The Jungle Book, giving truly amazing performances in
both; very few actors are able to translate that talent this effectively.
To put it simply, I have gotten to the point
where I am truly excited to see whatever new film she’s attached to, knowing
her verging-on-legendary pedigree over the last few years. So, how does she
fare today when she steps out of that comfort zone into a ‘dark comedy’. Brace
yourself for one of the most unfortunately apt titles of any film this year.
The plot: Political hopeful Jess (Scarlett Johansson), on
the eve of her wedding, has been set up with a bachelorette party weeked in
Miami with her college friends Alice (Jillian Bell), Frankie (Ilana Glazer),
Blair (Zoë Kravitz) and her Australian friend Pippa (Kate McKinnon). However,
after an encounter with a male stripper quickly goes wrong, the five friends
find themselves in the middle of a serious problem that, if not dealt with
soon, could result in all of them getting locked up. Too good for ‘em, I say!
Johansson is decent and (even if it is essentially robbed
from her) she absolutely delivers when she’s tasked with just screaming
catharsis at Alice. Speaking of Alice, Bell’s abrasive and somewhat
misanthropic on-screen persona is back with a vengeance here, and unfortunately,
the aspects of her character seem to be beyond Bell’s ability to make rather
unsavoury things palatable. Glazer is okay, Kravitz basically has to be the
straight-man of the group (and may or may not be sexually assaulted by film’s
end, although the film seemingly doesn’t care about the finer details) and does
well enough there, and McKinnon, caricature of my homeland aside, is really
friggin’ annoying.
Ty Burrell and Demi Moore as two older swingers hit that one
note as hard as they can, Dean Winters probably gets the most laughs in his
minor role, solely because he gives the most realistic reactions to the utter
nonsense going on around him, and Paul W. Downs as Jess’ fiancée Peter might be
the only actual good person in this whole movie. More on that later.
Darker comedies are pretty much required to have somewhat
abrasive characters, as morbid or otherwise uncomfortable jokes are best
delivered by people who would believably say such things in the first place.
However, I can’t help but think that this script went about such things in the
wrong way. I say that because, honestly, we don’t even that many actual
characters here. Most of the male supporting cast consists of either
intentionally emasculated figures meant to serve women and do little else (as
shown in Peter’s incredibly awkward wine-tasting session) or explicitly stand
in the way of our female main cast for one reason or another.
Now, much like
with Bad Moms, I’d fine with this if there was some bigger point to the whole
thing, but not even the main cast have genuine character to them. Frankie is an
Occupy caricature, Blair barely has a consciousness to speak of, Jess has some
drive but mainly exists just as ‘the main girl’, Pippa feels like a throwback
to 90’s era fascination with all things Aussie (shown through stereotyping that
never seems to make any real sense) and Alice? Alice is a horrible person,
plain and simple. Manslaughter and brushed-aside attempted murder, combined
with raging narcissism, makes for a very difficult blend for the audience to
apparently feel sorry for. Hell, if they just kept her unlikeable or, better
yet, someone who needs to learn a few things, that’d be fine. But no, she gets
(rightfully) told off during what I guess is the third-act break-up of the film
but, don’t worry, Jess didn’t actually mean it.
This is not in any way helped by how much the film seems to
be spinning its wheels for something for the characters to do. Yeah, they have
a dead body to take care of, but it’s kind of weird what they little they
actually do with that main conceit.
That bit from the trailer where they drive through a busy street and the dead
guy has a massive erection? Not in the actual film. If only the film was that adventurous. More than anything, the restrictive
nature of the plot combined with most of it taking place in a single goddamn
room makes this feel like a stage production that got a very wobbly adaptation
to film; think Fences if Fences was criminally undemanding of its audience.
They drag the body around, try to dump it, and bicker amongst themselves over
something usually unrelated to the aforementioned corpse.
Knowing that this
kind of premise has gone into semi-memetic legend through films like Weekend At
Bernie’s, the fact that this film seemingly doesn’t know what to do with that
idea is painfully evident. Making a joke out of someone who was accidentally
killed requires a lot of commitment and actual acknowledgement of the attitudes
of the people involved, neither of which this seems to be willing to put
forward. Instead, it largely goes for the far easier jokes and gags that,
frankly, could be in any other film.
I really, really
wish I didn’t need to keep bringing shit like this up, but it’s once again time
to talk about the chick flick formula. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand my
own position as I make these statements: I was literally the only person at my
screening with a Y chromosome, and even
though entertainment through media shouldn’t be this partisan, I get that I’m
not the intended audience for this kind of film. However, I fail to see how that should factor into the simple fact
that, like a lot of other so-called ‘chick flicks’, this says some rather
troubling things about its actual intended audience.
A contributing factor to
the sense of not much happening that so pervades this film is the fact that
almost every major (or even minor) event in the film happens to our main characters. Save for the
involuntary manslaughter, pretty much everything that we see is inflicted on
the main cast without them really having much to do with it themselves. What’s
more, how the bigger problems in the plot get resolved is rarely a result of
our leads actively working to fix them. From the reveal about the guy who was
killed to the resulting climactic scene that is as cringey as it is potentially
insulting, ‘makes it easy’ seems to be this film’s safe space. Comedy comes
from a deep and dark place naturally, and films like these that seem to go out
of their way to ensure that nothing actually dramatic happens to the main
characters come from a likewise deep and dark place. I’d finish that punchline,
but quite frankly, I think this film’s pattern of bodily function humour made
it for me.
All in all, for the love of God, I am tired of seeing films
like this! Call it mansplaining all you want by this point, I’m not accepting
that this is serviceable product for anyone.
A weirdly recognizable and overall willing cast and a couple of actually funny
jokes aren’t enough to get around the extremely passive and ultimately lazy
mindset at the heart of this film. I will probably never truly ‘get’ why this
film would ever be something a person would actively enjoy watching, although
you have seen it and liked it, good for you; as highly opinionated as I am with
this reviews, I never want to take someone else’s enjoyment away from them.
With the success of Wonder Woman creating buzz for more female-lead tentpole
films, I can only hope that we start getting more of that (Actual strong
characters who, regardless of the gender of the audience, connect and might
even inspire) and less of this (Distaff re-skins of more successful comedies
that seem to completely miss what makes something actually funny, and
potentially insulting the audience’s intelligence in the process) over the next
long while. Chance would be a fine fucking thing.
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