Jeri Jacquin
Coming to theatres this Friday from director Nisha Ganatra, writer
Mindy Kaling and Amazon Studios is the funny found in LATE NIGHT.
Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) is the host(ess) of television's
LATE NIGHT. An icon of late night she is also having difficulty in the ratings.
Part of the problem is that she seems a little out of touch and always
dominating her all male writer's room.
Brought to her attention by Brad (Denis O'Hare), she makes it
clear that hiring a female writer for the team is top priority. The writing
staff of head writer Tom (Reid Scott), Charlie (Hugh Dancy), Burditt (Max
Casella), Mancuso (Paul Hauser), Reynolds (John Early) and others are surprised
when Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling) walks in the door.
A chemical plant worker by day, Molly has a dabble of experience
in comedy and that's enough to be hired for. The team tries to come up with
ideas to save the show when they discover that the head of the studio Caroline
Morton (Amy Ryan) has taken enjoyment with the announcement.
Newbury is in a state that even her husband Walter (John Lithgow)
can't get her out of. That's when Molly kicks her ideas into high gear and the
team beings to crank out comedy that it working.
As much as Tom fought against Molly, Molly finding a workplace
romance and Newbury fighting change - it takes one work to the media to
potentially bring it all down.
That's when comedy does its best work!
Thompson as Katherine is a strong woman who has become a tad
complacent about her show. Fighting the change that could have kept her on top,
it is a changing of the guard that makes her realize she will try anything once
- twice if it will get ratings. Thompson is a favorite of mine so it's always
good to see her go in a different direction.
Kaling as Molly brings out all the big guns in her character and
honestly doesn't do a thing for me. She uses every excuse in the book for her
lot in life from calling herself a "diversity hire" to jokes about
"white privilege" and all I could think was 'and she wrote this?'. I
don't mind films that bring out issues but when it’s every issue on the planet
you lose me quick.
Scott as Tom is a guy who doesn't like the idea of having Molly
thrown into the mix with no experience. That would be said of anyone who took
the job in the writers room but of course he's going to be raked over the
coals. Dancy as Fain gets the chance to be a douchebag and plays it perfectly.
Lithgow as Walter is absolutely lovely and doesn't fit in the film
at all. He's the quiet cheerleading squad to his wife's mania. O'Hare as Brad
is constantly browbeaten so that is about the extend of his role. Two amazing
actors used badly.
Casella, Hauser, Early, Slattery, Barinholtz and the rest of the
writer’s room are made to look incompetent when in actuality they were just
stuck in a room with their hands tied around their backs.
Ryan as Morton is the iron fist that comes down on Katherine's
head with plenty of enjoyment. So basically its one woman of power smacking
down on another woman who thinks she has power. So much for lifting one another
up eh?
Look, I'm sure there are those that will enjoy LATE NIGHT and it
isn't that I totally hated it. There are moments that are funny even if they
are far apart.
I didn't know whether to cheer women, women of color, women taking
care of their man, women for change, men being brow beaten, men living in job
fear, blah blah blah blah. I couldn't invest myself in pretty much any of it
because instead of it being a learning experience it felt like constant
jabbing.
I'm not sure what Kaling was trying to prove here but for me it
didn't work well enough for me to even watch it again on television. Not a fan
of whining, blaming or poor me in general but when it's all in one film I pretty
much check out early.
The sad part about this is that there are some very talented
people in this film and, to me; it feels as if they have just been put in roles
that they didn't deserve.
Oh well, that's how I feel about it anyway.
In the end - they are attempting to give comedy a re-write!
