Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/517362
MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2015 UCW 15 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Back in 2011 when I reviewed Bridesmaids I lamented the fact that the groundbreaking female- driven "gross out" comedy was directed by a dude. Now it's 2015 and Hot Pursuit (87 minutes) a female-driven buddy road trip comedy fea- tures a female director, Anne Fletcher. Prior to Hot Pursuit her most recognizable films were The Proposal and 27 Dresses. I thought both those films exemplified the worst kind of indulgence, reducing women to unlikeable stereo- t ypes. Unfortunately, Hot Pursuit is more of the same. Reese Witherspoon always seemed like a good actor, so I was surprised to see her reciting lines like a coked-up automaton in des- perate need of some anti-anxiet y medication. Sofia Vergara, attempting to provide a larger than life comic foil to Witherspoon's straight woman only succeeds in reinforcing every single existing stereot ype about Colombian women. I expected the film to simultaneously bore and anger me. The first ten minutes or so was actually prett y cute. From infancy, Rose Cooper (Witherspoon) spent most of her time in the backseat of a police car while her father was protecting and serving. As she matured she memo- rized police codes, eventu- ally joining the force herself. When the narrative picks up she is chasing some guy down a street. But she is not polic- ing at the time, just trying to return his wallet after he f led their date in terror. You see, she thought pulling a gun on him over appetizers was a surefire way to get a second date. To be fair, I imagine that works about fift y percent of the time in Texas. She heads back to the sta- tion, where she is stuck on evidence room dut y after she accidently sets the Mayor's drunk son on fire with her Taser. Her boss, Captain Emmett (John Carroll Lynch) assigns her to work with a U.S. Marshall (Richard T. Jones) and escort two wit- nesses who are testif ying against a cartel leader. Cooper winds up on the run with the wife of the informant, Daniella (Vergara). They have wacky hijinks for the next hour, while trying to sort out who is on their side and who is try- ing to kill them. Weirdly, Warlow from True Blood shows up as a love interest. I am not sure what he is doing, besides justif ying his status as a convicted felon on parole by saying he only brutally beats men with a baseball bat after they beat his sister. I'm not saying that it's bad to beat up guys who beat up on women; I'm just extremely puzzled at how quickly Officer Cooper decides it's okay to beat up people when you have a good reason. I read somewhere that producers were sur- prised at the poor box office showing and lim- ited female appeal. After all, there are two lead- ing ladies! I must say, after watching the final product I came away thinking at best, that I was being condescended to and, at worst, patron- ized. I figure that about half the jokes related to Witherspoon's lack of femininit y and the other half related to Vergara's hypersexualit y. At this point, it's not the Holly wood machine co-opting a brilliant female director's vision of a female Lethal Weapon. In fact, Anne Fletcher just isn't that good at directing, especially when directing from a script written by two dudes. Now play ing at Pat riot 14 + IM A X . HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Hot Mess Hot Pursuit (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS