Ryan McNeil
The interesting thing about film is the way a movie can succeed simply by tapping into a forgotten genre. Create something new that adds to a canon, and it brings with it a high degree of goodwill from audiences to remember that canon and graft their love for the style on to this new offering. The situation tips even further in the filmmakers’ favour if they are able to bring something new to the genre.
However, one has to wonder if building on canon is enough…or whether a new offering should come with something new to say?
THE HEAT introduces us to FBI Agent Ashburn (Sandra Bullock). Working out of New York City, Ashburn lives a life that wraps an unfortunate piece of bad news around a certain degree of good news. The good news is that she’s great at her job, ranking towards the top of her division where arrests are concerned and cracking cases that seem to stump her fellow law enforcement officials. The bad news is that her social skills suck, and as a result nobody likes her – personally, or professionally.
Still, there’s hope. Her superior is being promoted, and she has a chance at landing a promotion of her own and filling his job. However, he doesn’t feel like she’s the right fit, citing that lack of social graces. To test her mettle, he sends her to Boston to work on a narcotics investigation.
It’s there, while trying to get information from a suspect that she meets Detective McMullin (Melissa McCarthy). Like Ashburn, she too is amazing at her job, and not well liked. However, unlike Ashburn, she is far more unkempt and uncouth. If Ashburn looks like she should be running an H&R Block, McMullin looks like the woman who empties the trash cans and mops the floors.
The two have very little in common, but if the case that has brought them together stands any chance of being solved, they ar going to have to figure out a way to work together.
THE HEAT is at its best when it allows Bullock and McCarthy to “just play”. They spend a great deal of the film needling each other with an attitude that’s not-so-passive-aggressive. Each woman embodies her characters flaws with ease, and each woman finds great amounts of humour in playing up the other’s flaws. The way the characters become a classic odd couple is what allows their situation to keep working. At a glance, one might think the slovenly Mullins would be bearing the brunt of the put-downs. Happily, that’s not the case, and what we get instead is a situation where each woman gets to take turns being “The Felix”, and likewise “The Oscar”.
The way they each embody parts of both characters in a traditional buddy-cop movie is what allows them a lot of rope, and a lot of opportunity to “just play”.
This should come as no surprise considering Melissa McCarthy is a (well-deserved) flavour of the month comedically. She is able to draw a laugh for all sorts of reasons, often for speaking in a way that suggests McMullin has no mental filter. What makes moments like this so much more effective is the way she counterbalances them with a high degree of intelligence. Lots of comedians are able to make us laugh by acting dumb; the way McCarthy balances her absurdity with warmth and observation is what draws us in.
Likewise, the fact that Sandra Bullock can land her jokes should seem like par for the course. Curiously, she has spent much of this century trying to escape the sort of comedic roles she excels at. In THE HEAT, not only does she play so well off McCarthy, but she is able once again to find silliness in a character that seems like she’s got it all going on. Usually, in this sort of film, the straight-laced cop is the one who has it all figured out. Bullock works Ashburn’s lack of social graces for laughs, and almost gives the film an unexpected boost with them.
While the film is funny, there are details that hold it back from really getting off the ground.
The first is the lack of introspection on who these women are. The previous film from director Paul Feig was BRIDESMAIDS, a film that seemed like it was going to be pure frat humour, but instead was a touching portrait of a woman whose life was falling apart while her best friend’s was moving on. Despite many opportunities to inject the script of THE HEAT with that degree of humanity, neither lead character is ever handed anything that complicated to deal with.
The second is the case itself, which feels like it lacks any complexity. There is a brave attempt to make McMullin’s brother Jason the fly in the ointment, and to build off the fact that his sister had previously arrested him. However the former is given no gravity, handled as little more than a passing glance. As for his sister being the one to put him away, the concept is played for obnoxious farce, turning the McMullins into little more than muppets.
That the film trips over these obstacles is a shame, since it plays so well at every other turn.
Watching McCarthy and Bullock goof around together is great fun. For the most part, the shenanigans are wrapped around their differing approach to police work, but the films also allows them a few moments to relate to one-another as people. In those moments, one can see a definite comedic chemistry that could easily be mined for several more films in varying situations.
While I wish there was a bit more to grab on to with THE HEAT, but I can’t complain too loudly since I nevertheless had a good time. Its promise of more to come from this well-assembled comedic team is what makes me let go of its missteps. Instead, I choose to hold tightly to its achievements.
I’m soooooo hesitant to see this film, namely because Identity Thief upset me so much. I feel like when McCarthy gets a good script and director (like she did with Bridesmaids), she’s fantastic. When she’s made the butt of every joke purely because of her weight, like in Identity Thief, it makes me feel betrayed and insulted personally and intellectually. She’s on a slippery slope, and I hope that her merits as a comedian and actress can rise above all that societal crap that makes me rage.
I might rent it, though… Sandra Bullock movies and a bottle of wine are a guilty pleasure for many a woman!
Yay, I finally got a comment on this one!!
I can ease your fear somewhat; she’s not the butt of every joke in this film because she’s heavy. She’s the butt of a few jokes because she’s abrasive and somewhat crass, but that’s balanced by all the jokes lobbed at Sandra Bullock for being oblivious and overly prim.
Much of the comedy comes from the standard buddy-cop tropes, so you might do well to save a bit of wine (or open a second bottle) and pair this up with 48 HOURS or LETHAL WEAPON.