The Boss

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Ben Falcone/Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage, Ella Anderson, Kathy Bates and Cecily Strong

Melissa McCarthy has had some hits and misses in this phase of her nascent leading-lady career. She seems to be settling into playing strong women with crude vocabularies and uncouth manners and she does both well. She can be funny if she doesn't linger in the course, low-brow neighborhood of the lowest common denominator.

In her new film, The Boss, directed by her husband Ben Falcone, McCarthy plays Michelle Darnell, a self-made, wealthy woman who has achieved a respectable level of fame and celebrity as a savvy business person. But we first see her as a child in an orphanage; in a series of shots that show her unsuccessful attempts to find a family. First we see her as a little girl being greeted by the nun, after one family returns her to the orphanage, then later as a bitter teen, who walks angrily past the sister after another family rejects her. We know immediately the subconscious quest for family will be one of the film's major themes.

The story picks up years later as we see Darnell standing before a capacity crowd in an arena celebrating her success as an investment mogul. In a following scene, the tough-talking, avatar of confidence is arrested for insider trading, leaving her assistants Claire (Kristen Bell) and Tito (Cedric Yarbrough) out of jobs.

It comes to light that her arrest was helped along by Darnell's former colleague and lover Renault (an amusing Peter Dinklage), whose rancor stems from a promotion awarded to her over him during their meteoric rise in the business world.

We also discover that Darnell's success can be attributed to her mentor now enemy Ida Marquette (a funny Kathy Bates), whose negative, expletive-laden assessment of her protege on television is one of the film's funnier moments.

Unable to avoid jail-time, Darnell is forced to spend time behind bars in a cushy, white-collar penal institution. Claire visits her boss in jail to announce her resignation. She cites her single-parent situation as her reason for leaving and seeking gainful employment elsewhere. We get a sense of Darnell's rabid narcissism when she tells Claire she didn't know she had a child.

Following her release from prison, Darnell finds her properties and money have been seized, leaving her without a home. Her means of survival alarmingly reduced, she shows up at Claire's apartment, luggage in tow. Claire's daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) answers the buzzer and, seeing Darnell in the street below, calls her a criminal and refuses to let her in. When she comes home, Claire finds Darnell sleeping in the street and is forced to to put her up after discovering her former boss is without property and income. Their time together as roommates is predictably fraught with frustration as Darnell proves to be a taxing presence who is prone to lie on the couch all day and take up space in the apartment.

The story and the situation change when Darnell becomes involved in Rachel's girl-scout-like group. After attending a regular meeting with Rachel, Darnell shows she has her own ideas about how the organization should be run, which pits her against a mother; Helen (a funny Annie Mumolo) who refuses to compete with an upstart. The combative exchanges that follow are funny, as Darnell's aggressive notions run afoul of Helen's.

In sampling Claire's excellent brownies at home, Darnell sees the brownies have profit potential, which prompts her to draw up a new business plan for a new organization called Darnell's Darlings. Her idea takes the Girl Scouts concept further by allowing the girls to earn a commission from sales on the brownies; a campaign Darnell believes will impart important life lessons about business and self-sufficiency. Darnell's own take-no-prisoner business ethic is implemented as she enlists Rachel's help in recruiting the toughest girls to become Darlings. The scene where Darnell and the red-beret clad Darlings take to the streets is fairly outrageous and over-the-top as they engage in a violent melee with Helen's girls, who happen to be canvassing the same neighborhoods.

As one might guess, Darnell's organization becomes a success and before long, it draws the attention of the local media. But just as Darnell, Claire and Rachel begin to enjoy the success of the new venture, Renault catches wind of the project and schemes to seize control of it. When Darnell sees Claire talking to Renault in the street, she immediately assumes her friend has sold out to her competitor. In a fit of vindictiveness, Darnell sells the organization to Renault, only to discover that Claire's exchange with Renault wasn't about selling out but rejecting his offer.

Up until this point in the narrative the movie was funny enough to be entertaining. Darnell's crass, hyper-aggressive business tactics are a humorous contrast to Claire's more compassionate, level-headed approach to salesmanship. Unfortunately, the second half of the film, where Claire, her former co-worker and beau, Stephan (Timothy Simons) and Darnell form a plan to break into Renault's office building to retrieve the contract that awards him ownership of Darnell's Darlings, is less funny--and fun--than the first half. As the film stumbles toward a predictable denouement, we know Darnell's issues about family will be resolved and her new organization will bring financial success to Claire.

The cast was quite good, particularly Kathy Bates, who made me chuckle in the few scenes she was allotted. Kristen Bell was a charming and effective straight-man (person? woman?) for Melissa McCarthy while little Ella Anderson showed off comedic chops of her own. Peter Dinklage's recent work on Game of Thrones doesn't allow him room to for comedic expression but he is quite funny here.

This is a different comedic role for McCarthy but the script, which she co-wrote, could have been better. I hope she reaches for better roles.

One attribute the movie can be commended for is its predominantly female cast, who carry most of the movie.

Though the movie's message promotes female self-reliance and assertiveness, I don't know that the brutal means by which they are achieved are totally positive. But this is a comedy; one that is given free rein to be hyperbolic so my reservation isn't totally valid.

I laughed the first half of the film and yawned the second. I can't sum up my reaction more succinctly or accurately. The Boss comes up short but at least it didn't scrape bottom.