Directed by: Lucia Aniello
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Kate McKinnon, Zoe Kravitz, Ilana Glazer, Paul W. Downs, Ryan Cooper, Ty Burrell, Demi Moore
Rough Night's early scenes made me at least curious as to how the movie will handle the plot which was given away in the trailers. There are some talented actors here, but soon they all have to dumb themselves down as the plot takes hold and creaks to its conclusion. The movie contains few surprises and you can see the developments coming from a mile away. That isn't necessarily bad, but in Rough Night it is.
We meet four college friends circa 2006 who bond and promise to remain best friends for life. They are Jess (Johansson), Alice (Bell), Blair (Kravitz), and Frankie (Glazer). They more or less keep their promise, and although their lives veer off into different directions, they agree to go to Miami to throw Jess a wild bachelorette party. Jess is in the midst of an election campaign as she runs for public office while engaged to Peter (Downs-who also co-wrote the screenplay with Aniello). Alice is a schoolteacher. Blair is a well-off wife in the midst of a divorce. Frankie is a professional activist, if there is such a thing.
The weekend starts off with dinner and the quartet is joined by Pippa (McKinnon), an Australian woman whom Jess befriended during a trip there and causes jealousy in Alice. I think the screenwriters only made the character Australian just to see McKinnon use the accent, which she does to occasionally funny effect. The girls snort coke, dance and party it up in slow-mo camera shots, and then retreat to a rented house owned by a swinging couple (Burrell and Moore) who proposition everyone they meet for a threesome. Alice calls for a stripper on the fly and one shows up at the door, only to be accidentally killed moments latter by an overexcited Alice who jumps on him and gashes his head open. It isn't pretty to see and it isn't funny. The movie then takes on a creepy tone as the girls try and figure out how to cover up the stripper's death.
The women are too scared to call the cops, mostly because Jess fears it would damage her campaign (she apparently never watched Donald Trump's 2016 campaign), and then the movie handles the developments in dumbed-down sitcom fashion. It doesn't really even try, even though the actors do the best they can to energize things. There is also the subplot involving Peter in which he drives down to Miami because he senses something is wrong after a panicky phone call from Jess. He wears diapers so he doesn't have to stop for gas, but then is forced to pull into a gas station and scrounge up money from other customers. The payoffs here are non-existent.
I judge comedies based on how much I laughed and whether I felt the movie had energy and inspiration behind it. I know a movie like Rough Night is not made to win awards. I know it may even be analysis-proof for those who find it hilarious. You either find it funny or you don't. I didn't laugh much and saw Rough Night as a movie which will quickly be forgotten.
No comments:
Post a Comment