Movie Review: Tammy (2014)

The movie stars Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Allison Janney and Mark Duplass.

My wife came across this movie a few days ago and, thinking it sounded interesting, decided to record it. We were looking for something to watch this past weekend and, after considering a couple other choices, ended up watching it. While we are both Melissa McCarthy fans, I have to say I was kind of disappointed with this effort.

To be fair, I actually thought the overall plot of the movie was decent. Tammy's (McCarthy) adventures with her grandmother (Sarandon) did prove to be somewhat entertaining and, unlike many other movies in this genre, the film managed to avoid being overly predictable. 

And, as I would expect from a Melissa McCarthy film, there were some funny moments in this movie. My wife and I especially loved the scenes involving her robbing a restaurant then, later, trying to return the money. Those scenes (and especially her "disguise") were very memorable and entertaining to watch.

My biggest problem with this movie is the writers worked a little too hard to make it a comedy. With subjects that included adultery and alcoholism, I think the film would have been much better had it been more dramatic.

This is especially true of the grandmother's drinking issues. Some of the scenes highlighting her alcoholism reached some pretty uncomfortable levels, to the point it was hard to laugh at some of the jokes made at her expense. In fact, I think even the writers started to realize this because the second half of the film seemed to dial down the jokes quite a bit, to the point the second half of the movie didn't even seem like it belonged in a comedy.

It wasn't a bad movie and, overall, I did enjoy watching it. However, I think the movie would have been considerably better had the writers realized the story made a much better drama than it did a comedy.

My Grade: C