Rough Night

This weekend is one of those rare summer weekends where I'm not really looking forward to anything in the theaters. I almost thought about skipping the movies all together, but thanks to a Regal Cinemas viewing deal (not really a plug, just an actual great offer) I prioritized Rough Night above an uninteresting Cars 3 and an unfortunately disappointing All Eyez on Me, which is what I was originally going to see.

In all honesty, I'm pretty much just waiting (read: hopeful) to see if the new Transformers can actually be "good" (doubtful) and to see if Baby Driver has a chance at being my new favorite movie of 2017 (likely). 

So, this weekend was a bit of a wash. 

And Rough Night didn't necessarily do much to make me feel any differently about that. 

Rough Night is a female bachelorette comedy much in the same vein as a Hangover film. It's got a really strong start, an endearing cast with a lot of chemistry, and some very funny participants. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as raunchy or funny as it thinks it is and the bulk of the film lands in a mostly uninteresting scenario that takes a lot of fun out of the film that I was having and expecting to continue. 

This cast is really strong though and I'd like to start there. Scarlett Johansson is the lead as an uptight bride-to-be and while she doesn't have very many funny parts, we all know she can lead a film and she was a good choice as the central figure. Kate McKinnon and Jillian Bell fight for the "funniest" lines throughout the film and most of what they do lands, McKinnon because of her 110% dedication and Bell because of her dry wit and sincerity. I've enjoyed both of them for some time now and it's great to see their styles come together. Zoe Kravitz, fresh off her star-turn in Big Little Lies on HBO, is surprisingly great here too and I could easily see her appearing in more and more things. She's got what's easily the most risque scene in the film and it was endearing to see her go all in. 

Things have apparently gone awry here...

The female-directed Rough Night gets bonus points for flipping the script on most gender stereotypes as, at least to me, the funniest scenes in the film are the contrasts between men and women's bachelor(ette) parties. While the girls are bumpin coke and getting drunk, the men are sampling wines and these scenes are truly priceless. Johansson's fiance, Peter (Paul Downs), very nearly steals the show after some things go awry and he thinks he needs to save her. That's a compliment to both the ladies and Downs that he can carry his scenes nearly single-handed and be just as funny as this very talented group of women. 

Maybe Scar-Jo should
have been in Ghostbusters?

It's a bit of a shame then that Rough Night doesn't do all that much with its talent; they're very limited by the story and script once an accident occurs. It starts off very strong and what I thought was going to be a fun night romp around Miami turns into a confined and predictable scenario of these women trying to not get in trouble for something they did. In classic comedic fashion, they keep making it worse, but once the accident happens, the film's laughs plummet considerably. It's still mildly fun and the laughs are still intermittent, but the tone of the movie shifts -- a bit uncomfortably -- and it never gets back to the place it was, except for the scene's with Downs' Peter. The script doesn't do these ladies much favors as their F-bombs and penis jokes get too samey and aren't quite as daring as I think they thought. To me it seemed like they were awfully confined by the script, McKinnon and Bell especially. You know that they can ad-lib some really funny stuff. Why not give them the opportunity to? It didn't seem like that was ever offered to them and the movie's laugh-count suffers because of it. 

The plot is also generic and predictable. That's not the worst thing in the world if your movie's funny, but it's a glaring error here since the film's hit rate for jokes is about 50% (some jokes fall embarrassingly flat too). I think this could have been a better film without the big accident and instead just a wild night around Miami with these ladies moving from place to place. I wish that the film would have had as much confidence in its leading ladies as they deserve because it feels like it holds them back in several regards. 

The Human Friend-epede!

Rough Night is certainly a lot like its title describes. We've all had fun, drunken nights. And we've all forgotten them shortly after because, despite our feeling at the time, they weren't really anything special. That's Rough Night. It's fun, has some solid laughs, and a very watchable cast, but come next weekend, you'll forget you went out at all. 

CONS

• Pretty low hit-rate for jokes. A few land spectacularly, some will give you a chuckle, and about half will go by without even a minor smile
• Felt like the script was mediocre and didn't give the ladies much room for creativity. Given the talent on board, that was a bad call
• Predictable and mostly uninteresting plot that is more obvious because of the lack of laughs
• Tone shifts considerably after a plot event and the film never really gets its groove (or constant laughs) back
• Forgettable

PROS

• Fantastic cast all around. These ladies are funny and gel naturally together
• McKinnon and Bell competing for funniest female is something I'd like to see more of
• The gender themes the movie challenges (i.e. bachelorette vs. bachelor parties) are the funniest parts. Peter is hilarious and his scenes were gold
• Good soundtrack
• Strong ending that has some heart and is probably one of the funniest parts of the film

Rath's Review Score | 6/10