Who doesn't love watching a mismatched pair lunge at each other's throats for the first forty minutes, bond over their scars for the next forty, and then catch the bad guy in the last stretch?
Although Hollywood beat the genre to death with a rusty grappling hook in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seems as though the answer to that question is "everyone". But with the arrival of "The Heat" (2013), the buddy-cop formula is injected with a much-needed ingredient: women.
It's amazing what a pair of X chromosomes can do to a genre previously left for dead. In one corner, there is Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock), an FBI agent who's good at her job but about as socially adept as a cantaloupe. She is sent to Boston to crack an international drug ring, where she meets Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), a Boston Police detective who sits snarling in the other corner, waiting for her foil to enter.
Mullins is rude, crude, vicious, possibly psychopathic and one of the best cops in Boston. So of course they initially hate each other, but the show must go on, no?
And does it go on, with explosions, gunfights and liberal uses of a certain four-letter word. Bullock is reminiscent of her persona in "Miss Congeniality" (2000), but manages to make her character more awkward and misplaced. The MVP award, however, goes to McCarthy, a balls-to-the-wall insane caricature that makes Mel Gibson from "Lethal Weapon" (1987), the standard by which all unhinged cops are judged, look like a tame puppy. She drinks, swears and has a refrigerator installed with a rocket launcher inside.
This is not a loose cannon she's a loose warhead.
One has to wonder whether the implicit sexual politics in "The Heat" have anything to do with the depravity of McCarthy's character. Did she have to be ludicrously outrageous in order to appeal to men? Is this what a female Mel Gibson character must be like? It's a hard question to gauge, but the short answer, in my opinion, is "no." The appeal of McCarthy comes from the contrast between her sweet and bubbly real-life persona and the absurdity of her characters, particularly what we see in Mullins.
Hollywood has historically scripted messed-up female characters in the past, but "The Heat" manages to do more justice to the relationship between the two women. Instead of the pissing contest that traditionally starts off the buddy-cop relationship, there is more subtle psychological warfare where the women try to break each other down. Ashburn pulls out the tools gifted by a Yale education, and Mullins arms herself with every profane word uttered on the back streets of Boston.
When they finally do get to be friends, they work together splendidly, which is its own problem. Through evaporating the tension in their relationship, the movie neglects what could be opportunities for a few outrageous and funny put-downs. Ashburn and Mullins joke with one another, but their camaraderie never regains the hilarity of earlier scenes when they are at odds.
Luckily, there is a reason why clichs exist: they work. Even though the tension between Ashburn and Mullins is gone, the film switches its focus to the wild ride associated with catching the criminal.
The city of Boston enters as a minor character in the movie as well, populated not with citizens but walking stereotypes. Mullins' family is like a light version of the dysfunctional family from "The Fighter" (2010), complete with various paintings of Jesus in Fenway Park and Bruins attire. I half expected a guest appearance by Mark Wahlberg, but alas, I was not so lucky.
"The Heat" seems to be doing pretty well at the box office, which makes me think that film executives sitting in a walnut-paneled room somewhere in South California may already be contemplating a sequel. I don't know if it's time to drag the rusty grappling hook out of storage just yet. What makes "The Heat" feel so original is the time that has passed since we've had a proper buddy-cop film.
But then again, Hollywood values the dollar above all else, so I suppose I wouldn't be surprised to see aN upcoming casting call for "The Heat 2: Heat Harder."Rating: 6.8/10"The Heat" is currently playing at the Nugget.
