Kathy Bates stars in 'Tammy': The movie is too sappy once its characters hit the road
Melissa McCarthy is a powerhouse, all right, but I鈥檓 discovering that a聽little bit of her goes a long way.聽
鈥淭ammy,鈥� in which she plays a rejected聽wife who hits the road with her hard-drinking grandmother Pearl (Susan聽Sarandon), is a lot of yowling and clonking and bashing. McCarthy starts聽things out with a bang 鈥� literally 鈥� by hitting a deer in her car on her way聽to her job at a fast-food joint, where she is given the heave-ho by her聽snippy boss and retaliates by throwing food all over the place. This scene聽is actually funny, in a slobbola kind of way, but when 鈥淭ammy鈥� turns聽into a road movie, it becomes increasingly sappy. I much prefer slobby to聽sappy.聽
The still youthful-looking Sarandon playing a grandmother is聽a jolt, especially since she doesn鈥檛 resemble the doddering roustabout聽she鈥檚 supposed to be playing. Maybe that鈥檚 why the director Ben Falcone聽(McCarthy鈥檚 husband and, with her, the film鈥檚 co-writer) gives Sarandon聽a full head of gray hair.聽
Pearl鈥檚 alcoholism is alternately play for laughs聽and pathos 鈥� a hypocritical two-step. A lot of good actors are wasted聽in this film in bit roles, including Allison Janney, Sandra Oh, and Dan聽Aykroyd. The ones with bigger roles, like Mark Duplass and Kathy Bates,聽are wasted, too. Grade:聽C- (Rated R for language including sexual references.)
