Slattery trying to find the laughs in manslaughter.
At the library saw this recent movie with Tina Fey and Jon Hamm, so thought it would be worth a shot at something my wife and I could enjoy together. Early on it starts out with some of the crime action, that many others have pointed out is a tricky pairing with comedy.
It jettisoned my wife for sure. But I stuck around...
The problem is not just that it's a crime/comedy, but the comedy is often pretty dry and well the crime is not embezzling, but let's say much wetter. Another problem is some of the absolutely stupid behavior by the "crooks" contrasted with the more sharp-witted dialog.
Tina Fey leans hard into her ugly ducking role, but her attractive personality plus kind of belies that. Well, then there is her ex-husband with benefits, that was sort of part of the dry humor. I noticed another review thought it was John Goodman as the assassin who has some tricks up his extra-large sleeves. But no, I think it was his stunt double.
The subtle work just gets murdered by the heavier overriding plot points. It's like admiring your kids chalk work on pavement drawing well within the police chalked body outline. Hard to shake that off-feeling.
Maybe instead of trying to go Fargo, John Slattery (Hamm's old pal from Mad Men, in his 2nd full length each time with a star from that successful show)....maybe Slattery could have gone further into David Lynch territory. Even that might not have worked, here in the US with our requisite patriotic level of fear of some random act of violence, I think it's hard to laugh at mistaken identity womanslaughter.
Bottom line the film ends up being less than the sum of its parts. Damn shame as the cast and ideas I do feel like could have been forged into something uniquely successful.
It jettisoned my wife for sure. But I stuck around...
The problem is not just that it's a crime/comedy, but the comedy is often pretty dry and well the crime is not embezzling, but let's say much wetter. Another problem is some of the absolutely stupid behavior by the "crooks" contrasted with the more sharp-witted dialog.
Tina Fey leans hard into her ugly ducking role, but her attractive personality plus kind of belies that. Well, then there is her ex-husband with benefits, that was sort of part of the dry humor. I noticed another review thought it was John Goodman as the assassin who has some tricks up his extra-large sleeves. But no, I think it was his stunt double.
The subtle work just gets murdered by the heavier overriding plot points. It's like admiring your kids chalk work on pavement drawing well within the police chalked body outline. Hard to shake that off-feeling.
Maybe instead of trying to go Fargo, John Slattery (Hamm's old pal from Mad Men, in his 2nd full length each time with a star from that successful show)....maybe Slattery could have gone further into David Lynch territory. Even that might not have worked, here in the US with our requisite patriotic level of fear of some random act of violence, I think it's hard to laugh at mistaken identity womanslaughter.
Bottom line the film ends up being less than the sum of its parts. Damn shame as the cast and ideas I do feel like could have been forged into something uniquely successful.
- ThurstonHunger
- Dec 25, 2023