Review: The Heat (2013)

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Demián Bichir
Director: Paul Feig
Country: USA
Genre: Action | Comedy | Crime
Official Trailer: Here

Editor Notes: The Heat is now open in wide release. For an affitional perspective on the film, see Derek’s review.

The buddy cop genre goes back decades in Hollywood, and has been given countless permutations over the years. The Heat deserves credit for the way it reverses the genders, and for how it develops each of its leads as a believable character, neither defined by their femininity nor ignoring it. This is a movie about women, and fortunately, it feels like one, rather than a paler version in which casting made the gender call. The movie is smart about what it takes to be a woman in law enforcement, and what these women have given up to do so. Unfortunately, it’s a buddy cop comedy that’s light on laughs, leaning heavily on riffing to fill out a screenplay that seems to have forgotten the jokes.

The movie is smart about what it takes to be a woman in law enforcement, and what these women have given up to do so. Unfortunately, it’s a buddy cop comedy that’s light on laughs…

Melissa McCarthy is a comedic tornado, and her ornately crafted put-downs and poetic use of profanity carries this movie a lot further than it otherwise would have gone. To call her the film’s MVP would be underrating her; to a large extent Melissa McCarthy is The Heat, and she gives a performance that is hilarious and affecting in a movie that could have used more of both. Sadly, she can’t make the whole thing work herself. Sandra Bullock is serviceable playing basically her character from Miss Congeniality as a straight man, and the two develop a believable rapport throughout the film (including a great runner about a leftover sandwich). They’re a pair it’s easy to root for, which makes it unfortunate that they find themselves in a movie that is tough to get behind.

Director Paul Feig, who gets a lot of the credit for Bridesmaids (the gender commentary behind that is plain enough to go without comment, I think) is asleep at the wheel here, and The Heat is one of the worst directed films of 2013 so far. The editing is nonsensical to the point of distraction, and the shot composition makes it almost impossible to get a feel for space. Early in the film, a cameo from Tony Hale was ruined for me by the baffling way his character’s exit was filmed. Thankfully, there are no car chases here, or my head would be spinning too hard to put thoughts to paper.

Director Paul Feig, who gets a lot of the credit for Bridesmaids (the gender commentary behind that is plain enough to go without comment, I think) is asleep at the wheel here, and The Heat is one of the worst directed films of 2013 so far.

The film is at its best when the plot and the direction get out of the way and just let McCarthy and Bullock riff. There’s an easy chemistry between them, and a sweetness to the way these wounded women, each branded “difficult” basically for being hyper-competent and female, come together over the course of the movie. I imagine a lot of comedy gold was left on the cutting room floor to make space for the half-baked drug bust plot that never provides as much narrative heft as it intends to, and this is a worse movie for it. A better, more unconventional film exists beneath the surface of this one, but there’s not enough competence behind the scenes to pull it out. As an argument against sexism, both in genre films and in the world they mimic, The Heat accomplishes its goals. As a comedy, however, its mostly inept, and absent Melissa McCarthy, a lot of the film’s stabs at humor fall flat (Jane Curtain appears, all too briefly, as McCarthy’s mother, and the only joke she’s given is a broad caricature of a Boston accent). McCarthy carries the weight of the production on her shoulders, so it’s unfortunate, if inevitable, when she’s occasionally forced to shrug.

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Jordan Ferguson

Jordan Ferguson is a lifelong pop culture fan, and would probably never leave his couch if he could get away with it. When he isn’t wasting time “studying the law” at the University of Michigan, he writes about film, television, and music. In addition to writing for Next Projection, he is the Editor-in-Chief of Review To Be Named, a homemade haven for pop-culture obsessives. Check out more of his work at Reviewtobenamed.com , follow him on twitter @bobchanning, or just yell really loudly on the street. Don’t worry, he’ll hear.

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