HOT PURSUIT
US, 2015, 87 minutes, Colour.
Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, Matthew Del Negro, Michael Mosley, Robert Kazinsky, Richard T. Jones, John Carroll Lynch, Jim Gaffigan.
Directed by Anne Fletcher.
It is almost a genre in itself, the odd couple comedy. But, habit usually makes us think of a male odd couple. It is much the same when somebody describes a film as a ‘Buddy’ comedy. It would seem that buddies are male also. However, this film offers us two female buddies, a female odd couple.
Obviously, they are not going to be buddies at the beginning. Reese Witherspoon, relaxing after her serious films, plays a dedicated Texan cop, following in the footsteps of her father whom she assisted when she was a little girl. But, she is a by-the-book officer, knowing every regulation possible and its application. She is mocked by several of the police officers at the station (though there are some dramatic developments which means that she has the last laugh). One day, she is given a mission to accompany a witness to a trial in Dallas. What could be simpler?
Well, the first complication is that the witness is a self-important Hispanic wealthy woman whose husband is about to give testimony at the trial of a cartel boss. Before you can say drugs, the home of the witness is attacked by two separate groups with a shootout, the two women, like each other or not, have to go on the run, with the criminals in hot pursuit.
Which means that this is a road movie, along the lines of the 1980s classic with Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, Midnight Run. The two women get into all kinds of adventures, all kinds of comic situations, each rescuing the other when the going gets tough. It would be nice to say that they form bonds – well, they do, but not without a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing, some confrontations with the cartel lord, and a shooting climax. (And a few plot twists.)
This means that the comedy depends on the two actresses, Reese Witherspoon righteous and uptight, gradually, very gradually, mellowing, and Sofia Vergara, trading on her glamour and know-how. There is an amusing running joke with television reports continually making Witherspoon shorter and shorter and Vergara older and older. Audiences will get, more or less, what they expect.
1. Police film, Road film, Buddy film, female buddies?
2. The title – and the film living up to it?
3. Texas, the town, the police precincts? The mansion, the cartels? On the road, the shops, the farms? Dallas, the courts? Prison? The musical score?
4. Buddies, and The Odd Couple? Rose and her doing everything by the book, humourless? Daniella, wealthy, beauty, arrogant?
5. Rose’s father, his death, seeing her as a little girl, helping him with his work, and knowing the book, quoting it? Her mistake – and the Cooper boo-boo?
6. Rose at her desk, knowing all the regulations, the tall cops, their mocking her – and the later revelations that they were in the pay of the cartels? The police chief, sympathetic to Rose? Giving her the job? The later revelation about his being in the pay of the cartels? The task, serious, the officer accompanying her – and his touches of humour with her? The task, getting the witnesses, protecting them, to Dallas and the courts? The police and their raid on the house, masked? The two Latin Americans? The death of the witness? The current, her tiara, the jewelled shoes, the gold, always taking her case? Her response to a husband’s death? Rose and the phone call to headquarters?
7. The escape, the car, taking the case? The police pursuit, killers? In the car, the crash with the truck, the drugs and its spread, going to buy new clothes, Rose on a high?
8. The range of adventures, the crash of the truck, trying to steal the vehicle, their being accosted, the lesbian performance, the man shooting his fingers? Seeing him on television?
9. The motel, the pursuit, the escape? Taking the new vehicle, finding the man in the back, his comments, helping out?
10. The Latin Americans, the pursuit in the car, the guns and shooting?
11. The women, the two characters, the odd couple and their bonding, their help in the gun situation, the lesbian pretence, Daniella revealing that the men were her allies, the death of her husband, getting his wealth?
12. Her plan, her brother’s story, wanting vengeance, getting to Dallas, not testifying? Going to the little girl birthday party, the songs, the dances? Rose warning Daniella? The confrontation with the cartel chief?
13. Rose, disguised as a boy, infiltrating? Out?
14. The discovery of the police chief, her disguising herself as a waitress, intervening? Finding Daniella with the cartel boss, his pulling a gun, her threats, her shooting the boss? Her being wounded?
15. Daniella, in prison, friendly with all the guards, getting out, the gift of the shoe?
16. Rose, the kissing, emotions, the relationship with the criminal? Her mellowing? The future?
