Tammy

With her latest picture Tammy, Melissa McCarthy seems to be trying hard to become the female John Candy (as opposed to the female Chris Farley), but this thin road comedy doesn’t attain the blend of schlubby humor and heartfelt poignancy Candy’s pictures occasionally achieved.  McCarthy co-produced the film with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay and wrote it with her husband Ben Falcone (who also directs), so this is clearly a project she controlled. Too bad she sets the bar so low, and does nothing in this film that she hasn’t already done in other people’s pictures like Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Identity Thief.  She certainly has the power to draw an excellent cast, but Allison Janney, Mark Duplass, Kathy Bates, Sandra Oh, Dan Aykroyd, and especially Toni Collette are wasted in roles that are completely beneath them, and it ends up feeling like they’re just doing the film as a favor to its likeable star. Only Susan Sarandon, who shares most of the screen time with McCarthy as her randy, alcoholic, diabetic grandmother, tries to do anything substantial with her role. It’s interesting to see Sarandon play such an elderly character, and she scores a few mild laughs, but, like the rest of the people involved in this picture, she isn’t able to pull off anything of real merit. I’ll be interested to see if McCarthy can play roles other than the blunt, overweight, socially-awkward-yet-lovable caricature that seems to encompass the totality of her big screen persona, but Tammy doesn’t venture an attempt at providing that opportunity.