Tammy catches her husband with another woman, and goes on a road trip with her grandmother.
I'll be honest, I was expecting to hate this. Despite my liking Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmais, I have cordially hated her in everything I have seen her in since. She seems to have not so much cornered as created a market for obnoxious fat women comedies. And presumably there is such a market or they wouldn't keep getting made. But, personally, as some one who finds obnoxious characters the very antithesis of humour, I find such films repellent rather than funny. And the trailer for Tammy gave every impression of this film being the same again.
To my surprise, it isn't. Part of the reason for this is that the character is very badly written, changing from being an obnoxious idiot in the early stages to a less repellent, less stupid, maudlin self-pitier for the majority of the film's length, without any great explanation or justification for doing so. And part of the reason is that the film never aims at being an obnoxious character comedy, more a sentimental cross-generation road trip comedy. Sadly, while this is considerably less offensive, it isn't any less funny.
The fault lies in the conception - misconceived from the start - and the writing, which is never able to rescue the film from where it put itself from the start. The performances are good, as one might expect from the A list women here (Kathy Bates is particularly good), but Tammy isn't ever a character you feel inclined to warm to. Likewise this film.
I'll be honest, I was expecting to hate this. Despite my liking Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmais, I have cordially hated her in everything I have seen her in since. She seems to have not so much cornered as created a market for obnoxious fat women comedies. And presumably there is such a market or they wouldn't keep getting made. But, personally, as some one who finds obnoxious characters the very antithesis of humour, I find such films repellent rather than funny. And the trailer for Tammy gave every impression of this film being the same again.
To my surprise, it isn't. Part of the reason for this is that the character is very badly written, changing from being an obnoxious idiot in the early stages to a less repellent, less stupid, maudlin self-pitier for the majority of the film's length, without any great explanation or justification for doing so. And part of the reason is that the film never aims at being an obnoxious character comedy, more a sentimental cross-generation road trip comedy. Sadly, while this is considerably less offensive, it isn't any less funny.
The fault lies in the conception - misconceived from the start - and the writing, which is never able to rescue the film from where it put itself from the start. The performances are good, as one might expect from the A list women here (Kathy Bates is particularly good), but Tammy isn't ever a character you feel inclined to warm to. Likewise this film.