Lack of 'Heat'

Every so often, there seems to be this “revelation” that women can be funny.

It happened two summers ago when “Bridesmaids” was released and became one of the highest grossing and critically adored films of the year. It’s almost like audiences and the media instantly forget that some of the smartest shows currently on television (“Girls,” “Parks & Recreation,” “New Girl,” etc.) are written, directed, and starring women. Not to mention that profitable films centered on almost all female casts have found success for decades.

This occurrence is unfortunately bolstered by movies like “The Heat,” a female driven comedy that falls on its face more often than not.

Sandra Bullock—playing an awkward and unromantic FBI agent, who would have thought?—is Agent Sarah Ashburn, a by the book, uptight “good cop” who may or may not be up for a promotion. That depends on if she can catch a drug lord with Boston PD’s Shannon Mullins, the flawless Melissa McCarthy, savoring the “bad cop” role. Neither Ashburn nor Mullins really has friends, unless you count Ashburn’s neighbor’s cat or Mullins’ weaponry collection.

It isn’t as if Bullock and McCarthy fail to have the buddy cop chemistry necessary for making “The Heat” a victory. Simply put, McCarthy has enough flavor for the both of them, and it’s she who carries the film far beyond it’s worth. Bullock doesn’t spend the whole two hours phoning it in, she’s just played enough of these roles that she doesn’t have any new ground to break. At best, her performance is recycled “Miss Congeniality.”

The script isn’t doing any favors, meandering here and there, attempting to humanize both Ashburn and Mullins far too often and without enough gravity. Look, Ashburn is lonely! Hey, Mullins has a loud, stereotypical Boston family who doesn’t appreciate her! It’s unnecessary fodder, and it’s played as such. Director Paul Feig, who gave us “Bridesmaids” and should know his way around a comedy, fails to eliminate these superfluous subplots and instead forgoes editing to let his cast attempt more humor. Letting McCarthy have free comedic reign works. Anyone else, and you’re wishing Feig had yelled, “Cut!”

And hey, just for fun, they throw in a vastly undercooked and needless romantic interest for Ashburn. It’s almost the lowest blow when you consider it could have been the emotional anchor the film desperately lacks.

As fruitless as “The Heat” proves to be, it’s a reminder that we continue to need female driven films of any nature until their success stops taking us by surprise. This nonstarter just isn’t one of them.