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    Miserable Comedy

    Tammy's depressing plot manages to make Melissa McCarthy unfunny

    Alex Bentley
    Jul 2, 2014 | 12:00 am
    Tammy's depressing plot manages to make Melissa McCarthy unfunny
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    Since her breakout performance in 2011’s Bridesmaids, for which she earned an Oscar nomination, Melissa McCarthy has quickly risen to the level of A-list star. After co-starring in two more high-profile comedies and having supporting turns in two others, she has earned enough clout to make the movie she really wants to make.

    So it’s more than a little disappointing that Tammy is so unfunny. Produced and co-written by McCarthy, and directed and co-written by her husband, Ben Falcone, the film mainly consists of one of the most horrific — as in difficult to watch — road trips you’ll ever see.

    There are a handful of funny moments in the film, but the uneasy chemistry between Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon throws things out of whack.

    In short order, Tammy (McCarthy) gets fired from her fast food job and then finds out that her husband is cheating on her with a neighbor. Desperate to get away, she jumps at an offer from her grandma Pearl (Susan Sarandon), who actually has money and a car, to be her road trip companion.

    But little goes right on the trip, mostly because Pearl is an unrepentant alcoholic whose affection for Tammy can ebb or flow depending on how drunk she is. The two of them get into one tight jam after another, saved by Pearl’s dwindling pile of cash or, when that starts to run out, the kindness of friends and strangers they find along the way.

    The whole thing ends up being so depressing that it makes you wonder if they were actually trying to make a comedy at all. There’s a difference between situations that are sad, from which laughs can be found, and ones that are downright miserable. The circumstances in which we encounter Tammy definitely fall into the latter category, and there’s little that McCarthy can do to put a cheery face on things.

    Not helping matters is the scattershot nature of the story. Because the characters are constantly meeting new people, road trip movies are disconnected by nature. But Tammy feels especially unfocused, as if McCarthy and Falcone were more concerned with giving screen time to actors like Gary Cole, Mark Duplass, Kathy Bates and Sandra Oh than in actually giving them something interesting to do.

    Then there’s this: Rightly or wrongly, McCarthy’s weight has been a point of focus for many during her rise to fame. When finally given the chance to write her own material, what does she do? Naturally, she has her character make jokes about her love of junk food on multiple occasions. There are so many other avenues of humor she could have explored; why give her critics easy ammunition like that?

    Although there are a handful of funny moments in the film, it’s the uneasy chemistry between McCarthy and Sarandon that throws things out of whack from the get-go. Put aside the fact that Sarandon is much too young to be playing either the mother of Allison Janney or the grandmother of McCarthy — the two of them just never jell, and most of the movie’s faults stem from that.

    McCarthy is capable of producing great hilarity with her acting, but if Tammy is any indicator, she needs to leave the writing to other people.

    A drunk and a mess make for quite the depressing time in Tammy.

    Susan Sarandon and Melissa McCarthy in Tammy
      
    Photo by Saeed Adyani
    A drunk and a mess make for quite the depressing time in Tammy.
    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    This Week's Hot Headlines

    Dallas Steak and Ale opening gets derailed in this week's top stories

    CultureMap Staff
    May 24, 2025 | 10:00 am
    Steak and Ale
    Steak and Ale
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    Editor's note: It's time to look back at the top Dallas news of the week, which includes a change in plans for Steak and Ale and major transportation updates. Plus, two closures, including one with rock star ties. Get the details on the most popular Dallas stories below, then check out this guide to Memorial Day weekend fun.

    1. Local opening of Dallas chain Steak and Ale gets derailed. The long-in-the-works return of Steak and Ale in Dallas is being shelved for now. The casual steakhouse chain, which in its heyday had nearly 300 locations, is no longer opening a location it planned for in Grand Prairie.

    2. Dallas farm-to-table champion Profound Farms closes produce operation. A Dallas farm-to-table champion is pulling the plug: Profound Microfarms, the small farm in Lucas that provided locally grown produce to chefs and the general public for nearly a decade, is shutting down its growing operation and discontinuing deliveries.

    Profound MicrofarmsProfound Microfarms is shutting down.Photo courtesy of Profound Microfarms

    3. Greyhound bus finds new location to replace downtown Dallas terminal. There's a new location for the Greyhound bus terminal, which had been in downtown Dallas for more than 85 years. Flix North America, the parent company of FlixBus and Greyhound, will be relocating service to a new intercity bus terminal in northwest Dallas in late September 2025.

    4. Dallas approves $14.5 million for Buckner DART station project. The Dallas City Council unanimously approved a $14.5 million incentive for the Palladium Buckner Station Project, a proposed mixed-income and transit-oriented development project at the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Buckner Light Rail Station at 8008 Elam Rd.

    5. Rock & Brews restaurant founded by KISS members closes in The Colony. A restaurant chain with rock star ties is closing. Rock & Brews, founded by KISS members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, will close its location in The Colony after nine years.

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