MELISSA MCCARTHY AS TAMMY WITH SUSAN SARANDON

year: 2014 rating: **

A movie with the title of the main character usually means that person is kind of… you know… unique and, um... special: And in a matter of speaking, the latter fits TAMMY since it’s a "Labor of Love" by star Melissa McCarthy, serving as a producer and co-writer along with her husband and the film's director, Ben Falcone.

We begin with Tammy hitting a deer, the first similarity to Chris Farley’s TOMMY BOY, and not the last: Both centering on a self-evasive, overweight slacker with a heart of gold, our husky heroine, TAMMY, revels in her problems, including a wrecked car, lost job, cheating husband and a comparably raw and restless grandmother…

Enter Susan Sarandon, the reason TAMMY is being compared to the iconic feminist cult flick, THELMA & LOUISE... But be warned: this is not  a Road Movie. After a quick highway montage, promising themselves an adventure full of cathartic mileage, Tammy and Sarandon's bluntly honest Pearl hit a snag after one night of drinking. At this point the movie repeats itself with saucy conversations about how Tammy needs a point in life, and Pearl needs less men, pills, alcohol. And so, as a loose cannon, Sarandon doesn't provide very much input or purpose. For an actress with her talent and long-lasting career, she never becomes the character. With the exception of a gray mop of a phony looking wig... she's simply being Susan Sarandon. And McCarthy has little to offer as well, having, along with her husband, written a story so self-absorbed, it hardly seems catered to an audience at all.