Review: The Boss

Somewhat of a letdown after the giddy comedic heights of last year's Spy, The Boss is a sturdy but insufficient vehicle for Melissa McCarthy's prodigious skills. Despite the weak plotting and characterisation, the second collaboration between McCarthy and husband/director/co-screenwriter Ben Falcone features one of McCarthy's most outlandish creations: Michelle Darnell.

As conceived by McCarthy, Michelle is the love child Donald Trump and Martha Stewart never had, the "47th richest woman in America" who went from rags to riches. First seen as a young girl returned time and time again to the orphanage, Michelle has become a celebrity businesswoman, the CEO of Darnell Enterprises. The secret to her success? Hard work and a ruthless unwillingness to emotional attachments. Others will only drag you down, she preaches to a stadium of adoring fans, cut them loose and sail on.

The cocky and despotic Michelle is bound for a fall and, sure enough, she gets it via former lover and ruthless rival, Renault (a hilarious Peter Dinklage), who rats her out to the SEC for insider trading. Sentenced to five months in federal prison, her accounts frozen, her company bankrupt, she bemoans her reversal of fortune as she's playing tennis in prison: "Look at me, fighting for my life in the yard."

Upon her release, Michelle realises she has nowhere to go and no one willing to help her - not surprising, considering she has belittled and backstabbed everyone who has crossed her path. Yet there is one person who reluctantly shows kindness, former assistant Claire (Kristen Bell) who allows Michelle to bunk with her and her young daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson). It's not too long before Michelle hatches a comeback involving recruiting young girls from Rachel's Dandelion troop to sell brownies made from Claire's recipe, thereby turning the clueless Girl Scout-type nonprofit into a multimillion-dollar baking empire.

It's undeniably amusing to watch Michelle steamroll over the Dandelions' meek leader (Kristen Schaal), who seems more interested in keeping the troops and their parents abreast of her cat's condition, and square off against Helen (Annie Mumolo), an uptight mother who heads up a competitive group of cookie sellers. Their whispered threats to one another are a highlight as is the Sam Peckinpah-style slow motion street brawl between the rival troops, which includes roundhouse kicks, girls being flung about by their hair, clotheslines strong enough to decapitate, and a burning wagon rolling past the mayhem.

The Boss works best when presenting such an absurd view of capitalism and female empowerment. It falters when it chooses more conventional narrative routes such as Michelle and Claire's bonding. Bell is her usual perky, unassailable, no-nonsense self, but the dynamic between her and McCarthy is no patch on the one shared by McCarthy and Rose Byrne in Spy. That pairing came with multiple layers as well as a certain equality between the actresses that is lacking between McCarthy and Bell. Which is not to say that Byrne is necessarily a better actress than Bell, but McCarthy overpowers Bell far more easily than she did Byrne. A far more interesting pairing to focus on would have been between Michelle and former mentor Ida (Kathy Bates), especially since Bates and McCarthy spark so well together.

The Boss

Directed by: Ben Falcone

Written by: Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage, Ella Anderson, Tyler Labine, Cecily Strong, Kathy Bates, Annie Mumolo, Kristen Schaal, Margo Martindale