The movie "Spy" recently wandered into my life—the rare comedy that merits a rating of over 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (I confess, my only trusted source of movie reviews now that Ebert has passed away). I felt obligated to see it, due to its rare high rating, and I wanted to see it, given Melissa McCarthy’s rising fame. It’s not often you see a woman in a comedy role that isn’t a romantic comedy. And, having seen it, the reviews were well earned.
The art of acting—and editing—are far more complex than I presume to understand, but, as most laymen will discover from this film, timing is very important. And the timing in this movie was impeccable—so many lines were uttered in quick succession, delicate strokes laced with vulgarity in inconsistently believable accents. Even the physical jokes were well-executed. In one scene, right as a climax of action occurs, Jason Statham erupts into the room and promptly knocks himself out; the scene is well-placed, short enough to not disrupt from the (comedic) tension of the scene, and further enhanced by lampooning Statham’s traditional dominance in action-thrillers. Rose Byrne, probably better known as the wife from “Neighbors,” is similarly well-cast. She is an important supporting character, and although most of her lines play off of McCarthy’s, the personality developed by the script makes her sharp criticism and inflection all the funnier in comparison to the soft, vowel-y pronunciation of McCarthy’s American accent.
Indeed, McCarthy’s performance is stupendous. I, as previously stated, enjoyed seeing a woman in a lead non-romantic comedy role, not because I am an ardent feminist, but because one of the inherent benefits of diversity is variety, and McCarthy was both hilarious regardless of gender and all the more fresh because of it. Following on the theme of sex, one supporting character (fun fact: he voiced Darth Maul in "Star Wars: Episode 1") was openly sexually harassing McCarthy. This is not inherently funny; the topic is not remotely funny in real life, but in application to McCarthy, a heavyset woman, the implication was a friendly message about female attractiveness—not preachy nor corny, but in good spirit, which made it all the more relatable to the viewer. That aside, McCarthy is a comedy star. Her ability to change characters from ashamed to assertive to furious and serious gives her a wide range of acting ability and is no small factor in her comedy—it is often her sudden changes from the background actor to commanding the scene that are the funniest and most ironical.
I don’t often watch comedies. I’ve been disappointed by films such as “Walk of Shame,” “Ride Along,” and anything with Adam Sandler. I know good comedies exist—ahem, "Ghostbusters"—but they seem to be few and far between. I mean, “The Martian” won a Golden Globe for a comedy movie…. I’m still not sure how that happened. Anyway, full-on comedies, ones that aren’t superhero flicks with an actor that traditionally does comedy roles ("Ant-Man") and aren’t drama-comedies ("The Martian", I guess?) and that aren’t the same bloody rom-com we see every two months, are rare, and those that do come out are rarely of high quality. But “Spy” manages to dodge its genre’s traps and pitfalls and become funnier than most anyone could’ve expected.
Go, Melissa McCarthy!
And be sure to check out “Spy.”
