Originally posted to the DMI Review on 7/8/13
(Insert funny title of choice here.)
The Heat is a very likable and often very funny comedy. It's also a bit ordinary, leaving something to be desired that I can't quite put my finger on. It stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as an FBI agent and Boston police detective, respectively, on the trail of a drug lord. Bullock's agent Ashburn is a type-A, promotion-minded hotshot who isn't shy about demonstrating why she's such a good agent. She's also very buttoned down and by the book, which contrasts strongly with McCarthy's rough, tough, and slobbish Detective Mullins. Two fine comedic actresses can take this premise a long way, and a good script can take it even further, and that's what happens in The Heat, but for everything it gets right, the film still coms up short as the excellent whole it should be.
A lot of credit must be given to Bullock and McCarthy, as they keep this film afloat. Those of you who've listened to the DMI Review Podcast may know that I've never been a big fan of Sandra Bullock; not because I think she's a bad actress, but because it's rare that I see her in good films (or rather in films that seem good enough to see). She was very good in Speed and The Blind Side, the latter a case where I think she was better than her film, and she is equally good here. Bullock is able to play an abrasive character with charm and a bit of sadness, not to mention a goofy bewilderment when she and McCarthy work on their case. Where Ashburn is uptight and restrained, Mullins is loose, vulgar, and unfiltered, something McCarthy similarly delivers with just the right amount of likability and repulsive tendencies. Together, they make for a team where from scene to scene we can root for at least root for one of them, if not both, when they square off against each other before facing the real bad guys. The rest of the cast is filled out with comic talents who all perform perfectly, including Tom Wilson (Biff from Back to the Future), Saturday Night Live's Taran Killam, Arrested Development's Tony Hale, Marlon Wayans, Veep's Dan Bakkedahl (fantastic as an albino DEA agent), and Jane Curtin, woefully underused but still plenty hilarious.
Director Paul Feig and writer Katie Dippold keep the jokes and sight gags coming at a quick pace with never a dull moment to be found, but the plot is never particularly compelling, which is really what holds the film back from something more. What they could have added I don't know, as it's already quite entertaining, but I suppose it lacks a sense of invention. Its pieces are all pretty funny, but the whole leaves something to be desired, something that may have only been remedied had this film been made years ago when the buddy cop comedy genre was a bit fresher. The presence of two strong female leads in this kind of film is something of a revelation, one that should have occurred much earlier, because at least providing different gendered versions of familiar characters allows talents such as Bullock and McCarthy to deliver finely tuned comic performances that might otherwise have been a bit hard to come by.
The Heat is a very funny film in need of more than just a framework on which to attach jokes. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy make the film worth the price of admission, creating a fine comedic chemistry that they can hopefully rekindle in future films. Neither actress is one that I've followed before, but I look forward to seeing what they do next, especially McCarthy, as I know she has a range beyond vulgar comedy, and Bullock herself has proven to be a talent far better than the material she's often given. Comedy is of course a very tough thing to pull off, so I can be thankful that The Heat is as entertaining as it is, not to mention that gives a lot of quality material to two very funny women. At the end of the day, I guess it's a lot to ask that a comedy provide more than just a bunch of laughs, and when the alternative looks like Grown Ups 2, I'll happily take The Heat any day. 8/10