BWW Reviews: SPY Lets Melissa McCarthy Have Her Action and Her Comedy Too

"Hold up n*gga! Why can't I be the one in slow-motion?!" - Dave Chappelle

Dave Chappelle makes a poignant point. Why can't the comedian be sexy and funny? Well, in their newest offering SPY, writer-director Paul Feig and comedian Melissa McCarthy seem to be saying, with a shrug, there's no reason you can't. McCarthy gets her own slow motion Casino Royale-style dress reveal scene where she's transcends "pretty in pink" (the defining palette of one of her alter-egos) and lands squarely on "sexy in black." And she's still hella funny.

In SPY, behind every devilishly good-looking spy is a strong, frumpy woman. Behind the debonair and conceited Bradley Fine (Jude Law) is dowdy desk jockey cum CIA analyst Susan Cooper (McCarthy). Cooper is so smitten and preoccupied with the fantasy version of Fine in her head that she can't see how daft and self-involved he is. Nor can she see how smart and caring she is.

After Fine goes MIA, Cooper volunteers to go into the field (and out of her comfort zone) to finish his failed mission. Her objective? To locate the ridiculously coiffed Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), a dangerous arms dealer looking to unload, you guessed it, a nuclear device. She plans to negotiate with terrorists - how else would you get a fair market value for a nuke? - and that makes her one of America's greatest enemies and gets her name added to the CIA's slist. Rose Byrne goes balls out in her performance of Rayna Boyanov. She serves up so much panache on a platter that you not only love to hate her, but you also hate to love her as much as you do.

Cooper's request to go into the field to fight one of the preeminent international criminals of her time is met with mixed reactions. Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney), agency commander in chief and life-size replica of the manager who answers her employees' meticulously crafted emails with "ok," sees potential in Cooper. Agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham) argues that Cooper is little more than a secretary and will only make a mess of the mission.

An olive branch to the hard-working, indispensable administrative assistants, it's worth mentioning that Ford is a meathead. Crocker uses her powers of observation and rational thought to determine whether or not Susan will survive in the field. She watches video from Cooper's time at the academy and sees a voracious young woman with strong combat skill and some unaddressed aggression and anger issues, whereas Agent Ford forms his opinion on, well, nothing.

As Cooper's foil, Statham is the stereotypical alpha-male who is unwilling to admit when he's in over his head. As a result, he encounters death scare after death scare. But Ford's cluelessness echoes the universally pitied character, Inspector Clouseau. This, in addition to his earnestness and overwhelming need to please, makes him an endearing character. Statham, smartly, performs the role with no irony. He commits to the character completely, approaching the role of agent Ford with the same intensity he approached his murderous psychopathic character assassin Deckard Shaw - who also just would.not.die. - in the recent release FURIOUS SEVEN. That he can depict two diametrically opposed characters with such (seeming) ease is remarkable; however, it is even more impressive that he holds his own in scenes with McCarthy. Many of my favorite scenes involved their flirtatious tug of war.

Despite Ford's objections, Crocker awards Cooper the assignment. Here is where Cooper's bumbling, unassuming side-kick Nancy (Miranda Hart) comes to the forefront. Hart is at her best in her scenes with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, who makes a fairly funny cameo in the film. Jackson and Hart have a undeniable, and surprising, chemistry. Hart is a charming, easy-going, good-natured woman who is the embodiment of good British manners.

Italian Aldo (Peter Serafinowicz) is the reverse of Nancy. He is the rotten apple trying to violate the rest of the bunch. It is not very feminist to say this but, ethics be damned, Aldo's Pepé Le Pew antics are funny. It's undeniable. That Aldo is a sexual predator is also undeniable. Yet, up against McCarthy's Cooper, he seems more like a gnat than a sex offender. This characterization and Serafinowicz's performance make Aldo palatable. Serafinowicz's tack is to make Aldo as unrealistic a human being as possible. His sexual come-ons are just as unconvincing as his Italian accent. It works wonderfully.

You can't afford to miss SPY. The jokes are fresh. The twists and turns of the plot are unexpected. The laughs are made from the finest ingredients. What's more, spy is a bona fide spy film. The fight choreography is just as strong as the slapstick. It's silly as hell, but there's real violence and gore too.

This is owing to Feig's genius. Time and time again, Feig has shown his ability to cull a new take on any strict genre piece and making it fresh. He pushed against genre borders of the teen soap dramedy in FREAKS AND GEEKS, the buddy cop movie in THE HEAT, and the wedding rom-com in BRIDESMAIDS. Now he's brought his magical talents to the spy genre.

Feig has a script where the character actors lead instead of support. Statham and McCarthy have incredible chemistry; much more than Jude Law's Bradley Fine and McCarthy's Copper. Law, our quintessential James Bond, is nice to have around, but he's essentially garnish. He's the sprig of parsley inexplicably plopped on top of our medium rare steak. He's easy on the eyes - he is after all the token hot guy - but he's completely superfluous. Now he knows how it feels to be Scarlett Johansson in the AVENGERS series.

Like spying, a good movie takes teamwork. Feig and McCarthy work well together. Feig is great at writing strong, leading women characters that don't fall into either ball-buster or shrinking violet. His script gives McCarthy a chance to flex her acting muscles. Because her character is a secret agent, she is able to portray a menagerie of characters. She's the unsure Susan Cooper. She's single mother Carol Jenkins and dowdy cat lady Penny Morgan. McCarthy has range. She made us laugh in BRIDESMAIDS. She made us cry in GILMORE GIRLS. And in SPY, she makes you laugh-cry. (Don't fret. There's some of that crass-ness that made her so great in BRIDESMAIDS. She makes an additional appearance as the porn star monikered Amber Valentine.) It's fun to watch her have fun with her role. It's also great to see her kick some ass.

SPY, written and directed by Paul Feig and starring Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Allison Janney, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Miranda Hart, and Jude Law, is rated R for language throughout, violence, and some sexual content including brief graphic nudity. SPY is released in theatres on June 5, 2015.

Photo Credit: Larry Horricks/Twentieth Century Fox

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