Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, Matthew Del Negro, and Michael Mosley
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 87 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2015
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This American action-comedy tells the story of a Texan Police Officer, Rose Cooper, who is asked to protect a drug dealer’s wife. Things naturally go wrong.
Rose Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) is desperate to pursue a career in law enforcement, and she wants to follow in the footsteps of her famous father, who was a respected police officer. He was the “best cop there ever was.” She is a sheltered, intense, and rule-bound police-woman, who always wants to behave correctly, but, all too frequently for Rose, things don’t work out in the right way. For example, she is the kind of person who uses her Taser on someone to make sure the person gets his wallet back. Quickly, she earns the reputation of behaving stupidly in difficult situations.
While working for the San Antonio Police department one day, Rose is unexpectedly given what she considers the perfect assignment when she is asked to protect a shoe-obsessed, sexy widow, Daniella Rica (Sofia Vergara), who suddenly becomes the ex-wife of an active drug dealer.
After the husband of Daniella is killed, Rose takes Daniella in tow, and the two women race through Texas, “hotly pursued” by drug lords and the police. And things get especially difficult, when the two women realise they have to contend with police corruption as well.
The drug cartel Daniella is due to give evidence against doesn’t like resistance, and Daniella is in a witness protection program to make sure she can give her evidence safely. Others, however – on both sides of the law – conspire to try to make sure that won’t happen. The plot swings from drug-world violence and police corruption to situational, comedy, and back again, as the two women get to know each other and bond together in the frantic chase.
This is basically an odd-couple movie that is a road-trip film about two women on the run, who enter into a “buddy” relationship. The chemistry between Witherspoon and Vergara works very well, and they are a good foil to each other. They insult each other before deciding they need to bond together to outwit the people who are pursuing them, and in their efforts they create some embarrassing comic moments. Along the way, the viewer is exposed to a graphic biological description of menstruation; and there are scenes of simulated lesbianism intended to deflect unwanted male scrutiny.
The film depends a lot on physical humour, and draws most of its laughs from slapstick routines that make heavy use of situational comedy. Its main drawing power rests in the tireless energy of its two main performers. Witherspoon and Vergara do everything they can for comic effect. The film obviously involves two talented comediennes, though the pace and style of Anne Fletcher’s direction is not served well at times by what they do and say.
As a slapstick, buddy movie, the film has comic appeal, and there are some very funny, laugh-aloud moments, such as when a busload of elderly people take obvious delight in their bus getting out of control, while Witherspoon and Vergara are up the front, shackled to its steering wheel with bullets flying all around. The final credits indicate that Witherspoon and Vegara have enjoyed playing their parts together immensely, and their mutual enjoyment shows.
This is an entertaining movie with good comic moments, and slapstick comedy is used cleverly. It shows two talented comediennes at work, but viewers should know that the film may expose them to some potentially offensive comic routines.
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