Will Ferrell-produced killer script delivers effortless comedy with Melissa McCarthy as The Boss
A LOL-fest that would cause outrage were genders reversed
MELISSA McCarthy is easily one of the best comedians on screen at the moment and in The Boss it shows.
It is her performance that sells the entire film.
Sure, the Will Ferrell-produced comedy has a great supporting cast and a killer script.
But as with Bridesmaids, it takes a real talent to deliver comedy this effortlessly.
Admittedly, Melissa plays pretty much the same character we have seen in all her other films. But she gets away with it once more.
She stars as Michelle Darnell, a self-made business guru and the 47th-richest woman in America.
Clearly based on mega-successful US entrepreneur Martha Stewart and looking like Sharon Osbourne and Margarita Pracatan had a baby together, this is a rags-to-riches-back-to-rags-back-to-riches-again tale packed full of inventive swearing, slapstick pratfalls and gross-out genital jokes — and it’s surprisingly great.
After ruthlessly building an empire that Oprah would be proud of, Darnell ends up in prison following a minor case of pesky insider trading.
She needs to eat a large helping of humble pie, washed down with a gallon of mea culpa, if she’s going to get back on top.
Unfortunately, her ex-boyfriend and business rival Renault (pronounced Ronald and hammed up to the max by Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage) is doing all in his considerable powers to wreak revenge on her for breaking his heart many moons ago.
Fortunately she finds inspiration from the unlikeliest of sources . . .
Darnell embarks on a new business venture with the help of her beleaguered assistant Claire (played charmingly by Kristen Bell), Claire’s daughter and a mob of Dandelions (America’s answer to our Brownies).
Will she succeed in the face of adversity while overcoming her prejudices and realising the error of her . . . Oh, what do you think?
What saves this film are its set- pieces. There is a zinger of a scene featuring a broken sofa bed, a proper spit-out-your-popcorn joke about how to distract a security guard, and I defy anyone to come up with a better description for an ill-fitting bra than “Two Basset hounds crying themselves to death”.
It also contains the most violent slo-mo children’s fight you’ll see for a hell of a long time.
Part School of Rock, part Bridesmaids, this comedy looks as if it was as much fun to make as it is to watch.
It gets schmaltzy, sags heavily in the middle and has gags that would cause outrage were genders reversed, but if you’re looking for a LOL-fest this is, erm, boss.
★★★☆☆
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