‘The Boss’ Review: Is Melissa McCarthy’s Formula Still Working?

When Melissa McCarthy Is “The Boss”, Expect More Of The Same.

Like an sociopathic Suze Orman or a female Jordan Belfort, Melissa McCarthy stars as Michelle Darnell in ‘The Boss‘. The film, releasing April 8th, is the story of Michelle going from famed mogul to disgraced felon. After getting busted for insider trading, something she claims EVERYONE does, Darnell gets out of her white-collar prison with nothing but her former assistant’s address. That former assistant Claire played by Kristen Bell is working a horrible desk job & trying to raise her daughter as a single mother. The addition of antiheroine Michelle is not what she is expecting. They soon come up with a plan to get Michelle’s fortune back & make Claire’s life better.

While the physical comedy was plentiful, the story seemed to lack something. Elements seem heavily borrowed from other films. Most recently being ‘Get Hard‘ starring Will Ferrell, who also was a producer for this film. The shining star was obviously McCarthy’s performance as Michelle Darnell. She was a huge character holding together a weak story & decent supporting actors. McCarthy gives herself some of most outrageous material in the film.

Another compliment for the film has to be its instant quotability. Like any great comedy, you need those punchlines that will live on with fans after the film. One of my personal favorites is when Michelle told Claire her outfit made her look like “she grocery shops at CVS”.

Maybe it was the Stalin-inspired girl scout uniforms or the street brawl with rival troop ‘The Dandelions” but something about Michelle running her own girl scout business was fun. “Darnell’s Darlings” turned selling Claire’s mind-blowing brownies into a legit business but soon Michelle’s rival Renault (Peter Dinklage) wants in. The twist are obvious, the drama is predictable but McCarthy’s performance pushes it past those hurdles.

But what was up with all those turtlenecks? Such odd style choice for the character. I was impressed with how many different versions of the same outfit she seemingly owned.

McCarthy’s unstoppable performance as Michelle Darnell is something she’s worked on since her early comedy days. With her penning the script with husband/director Ben Falcone, this is far better than her recent films including ‘Spy‘ and ‘Tammy‘.

Will you be seeing ‘The Boss‘ when it’s released on Friday, April 8th? The film stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage, and Ella Anderson.