Amazon Studios
After watching Emma Thompson be reduced to roles in a Johnny English movie, a Bridget Jones movie and a Disney movie in which she was a teapot, it is exciting to see her return to the big screen with a hefty role worthy of her formidable talents, and every moment of her acerbic and intelligent performance in Late Night is like being led through the desert to water. The film, helmed by writer Mindy Kaling and director Nisha Ganatra, is a formulaic office comedy about a veteran late night talk show host who happens to be the only woman in the field, and who is about to be replaced due to low ratings caused by her archaic view on how her show should be presented. Enter Kaling’s character, Molly Patel, a diversity hire who has never worked in television or comedy before, but who is thrown into the deep end, a writer’s room filled with misogynistic white dudes who resent her, and forced to produce and grow under the scrutiny of all. In true movie comedy by-the-numbers form, Molly’s earnest wish to help her idol bring her show into the modern version of the medium and save the day for everyone becomes the predictable journey of the movie. And there we have it.
Only it isn’t that simple.
If you compare this formula to past films with this premise you will notice something that is amiss here. The central character in Working Girl is Tess McGill and her nemesis is boss Katherine Parker – it’s McGill’s story. Watching The Devil Wears Prada, audiences see how Andy Sach’s life is changed by working for the tyrannical Miranda Priestly – it’s Andy’s story. Examining My Favorite Year shows how Benjy Stone is changed by the overwhelming Alan Swann – it’s Benjy’s story. It should, therefore, follow that Late Night is going to be Molly Patel’s story, rather than Katherine Newbury (Thompson’s character), but that was, clearly, not what Kaling had in mind when she wrote the script. Kaling has given almost everything to Thompson, not a complaint because the more Emma Thompson there is the world, the better. In fact, the more Emma Thompson there is in this movie, the better. That isn’t to say that the entire cast isn’t good because Kaling et al are wonderful in their roles – but their storylines, their characters, their relationships are underdone.
The basic story of Late Night shows the venerable Katherine Newbury, a snobby 28 year veteran of the talk show circuit who, having started in stand up comedy, has become stuffy and implacable. Her staff, most of whom have never met her, fear her, and she has no intention of condescending to meet them or, when she does, learn their names. Having been informed by the head of the network (an impressive Amy Ryan) that she is about to lose her show, she daily castigates the boys’ club of writers and the newly hired Molly, demanding they save her show, all the while resisting every good idea that they bring her. In secondary stories we see Katherine’s loving relationship with her husband (pure John Lithgow magic), a Parkinson diagnosed emeritus NYU professor, and Molly’s growing friendships with her colleagues. As the stories develop there is an on-air dust up with a YouTube star and a personal life based scandal, both of which further threaten Katherine’s future with the show, not to mention an offensive Dane Cook-like comedian (Ike Barinholtz) tapped to replace her. No spoilers here because the night I saw the film audiences reacted vocally with guffaws of laughter, gasps of surprise, and much applause for empowered speeches from both Thompson and Kaling, and I’d like future audiences to have the same experience. And I do think people can and should benefit from the experience of seeing Late Night.
Kaling’s writing is enjoyable. The story is easy enough and the dialogue flows nicely, sometimes rising to the level of extreme intelligence and social relevance. There is witty, biting banter between more characters than Thompson and Kaling. There are surprises, there is pathos, and there are more than a few laugh-out-loud moments. Particularly satisfying are the scenes when the women go toe-to-toe: Thompson and Kaling work well together, and Thompson and Ryan are especially good in their few short scenes together. Speaking personally, the most touching scenes in the film are the ones involving John Lithgow, one with Kaling and three with Thompson, and I wonder if it’s just some special knack he has with every co-star he gets to play with, but whatever it is, it works. All of the men in the writer’s room are fun to watch, with Max Casella rising to the top, above the always wonderful Denis O’Hare and Hugh Dancy. Casella has a chemistry with Kaling that made me wish they had more scenes together.
So with all these accomplished actors turning in these praise-worthy performances in a laugh-out-loud movie I have called enjoyable, why can’t I be more effusive about Late Night?
Because something went wrong in the writing.
In every movie there is an A story and a B story. A story: Tess McGill tries to make it on Wall Street in spite of her horrible boss. B story: Tess McGill has a sucky boyfriend and a pushy best friend who distract her from her ambitions. A story: Andy Sachs has to adapt to the fashion industry to impress her horrible boss and get ahead. B story: Andy Sachs has a pouty boyfriend who doesn’t support her and a hot writer chasing her. In Late Night there is an A story about Katherine Newbury, her stodgy personality and the quest to save her show. And then there is a B story that is meant to be about Molly Patel stepping out of the shadows, learning who she is, asserting herself and helping Newbury save her show. Only, while Patel does grow, most of her thoughts and beliefs in life are already visible when she enters the movie, while she does see her dream of working for Newbury come true, when the chips are down she moves to Brooklyn and leaves Newbury to save her show herself. Molly Patel is a character bogged down with inconsistencies, crying at work one moment and blasting astute observations the next, fawning over Newbury endlessly, then boldly walking out of a meeting, ignoring the threat of being fired. Even late in the film when there is every indication she is going to get off the phone with one of the team and do something radical to save the day, nothing happens. There is little pay off, there is small resolution, there is no triumphant moment that has been perfectly set up — it’s like there’s a deleted scene somewhere, maybe a few, waiting for the DVD release. Molly is a pleasant character in Kaling’s winsome hands, but her story arc in the film is wobbly and requires an active suspension of disbelief.
Fortunately for Late Night, the A story and the character transformation arc belongs to Dame Emma Thompson, and rightly so because there is no wrong move that she makes in the film, giving a multi-faceted and super smart performance that is nothing but enjoyable from start to finish. One could wish that the already good writing had been great writing, or that the character relationships had been a bit more detail oriented, or that Katherine Newbury hadn’t said so many times that she was a woman working in Hollywood, when every single exterior shot in the film was in New York City. This writer and movie-goer is willing to let those wishes go because he did have a good time watching Late Night, mostly because of the presence of Emma Thompson.
And even in an uneven movie, more Emma Thompson is still more Emma Thompson.
Late Night has a run time of 1 hour 42 minutes and is rated R for language throughout and some sexual references.
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