Walking into a film like Tammy that has been heavily marketed as a comedy, one is safe to presume the film would be the raunchy sort, but walking out of the theater I realized what heart the film had.
To start, I have to express my love for Melissa McCarthy. The way in which she does physical comedy is genius. She is bold with her choices and is fearless in her commitment to make the unfunny really funny.
My appreciation for Tammy is embodied in both Melissa’s performances and her chemistry with the other performers. Now, what I was expecting was a non stop ride of jokes, but while I surely did laugh, I also gleamed at the authenticity of which the film carried itself.
I say authentic as in the dimensions of the characters. Tammy is not the typical sort of person that takes lead in a film. She is flawed, but bold; she speaks her mind, and yet naive. She is downtrodden as she is beautiful. She is gritty and raw, and nontraditional. Indeed, in her adversity, in her low, middle class existence we connect to her as we would a friend. Her struggles are what makes her alluring, but her pain is not carried alone.
Her relationship with the women in her life is the crutch of the film. Her strained, but loving relationship with her mother is just as important as her estranged and troubled connection with her grandmother. While a romantic prospect is part of the plot, again we find ourselves in a film where, like obvious child, the romance is more of the backdrop to everything else.In this film, women are carrying the film, and why this is crucial for women-centric films is that the focus becomes more on the affinity and alliance between women, who, in their struggles, bond together and self-discover without being dependent on men to define themselves.
When you see Tammy appreciate these connections because we rarely see kindred relationships between women on screen, and at first it seems strange and foreign, but my hope is that more women like Melissa McCarthy, and Jenny Slate and the countless of women behind the camera continue making films whose soul and heart are intertwined with a deep and genuine relation to women.
And if anything else,a lesbian 4th of July with a Viking burial is imperative to experience at least once in your life. Go see Tammy.
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