The Boss

Filmmaker Ben Falcone’s disappointing followup to 2014’s Tammy, The Boss follows Melissa McCarthy’s Michelle Darnell, a powerful businesswoman, as she’s sent to prison for a six-month stint after a competitor (Peter Dinklage’s hilarious and under-utilized Renault) exposes her less-than-savory financial practices – with the movie primarily detailing Michelle’s post-prison efforts to get back on her feet (much to the constant consternation of her long-suffering assistant, Kristen Bell’s Claire). It’s almost impossible to understate just how terrible and unwatchable a note The Boss strikes in its opening scenes, as Falcone, working from a script cowritten with McCarthy and Steve Mallory, employs an unreasonably broad sensibility that’s both totally unfunny and oddly discomforting. (There is, for example, a sequence in which Claire whitens Michelle’s teeth that’s more desperate than hilarious.) The movie doesn’t begin to improve, then, until Michelle is forced to start over, with Falcone’s emphasis on the character’s fish-out-of-water paving the way for a number of better-than-expected sequences (including Michelle’s brassy attitude towards a group of mild-mannered girl scout-type figures). It’s distressing to note, however, that The Boss‘ affable midsection gives way to a seriously tedious third act, as Michelle is forced to learn a series of important life lessons before engaging in a needlessly over-the-top heist-oriented climax – which ensures that the film fizzles out to a rather astonishing degree (and, in the end, renders the various positives within the proceedings moot).

** out of ****