Sisters

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s projects can feel like one of two kinds. The first is stuff like Parks and Recreation or the Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt – crafted lovingly and built from the ground up by their specific talents.

The second kind – of which this movie is an example – feels like the kind of thing they signed on to because they thought it would suit their sensibility enough and not take more than a couple of weeks away from stuff they were more interested in. It feels much more like a corporate studio comedy than something a writer or producer really cared about.

They play grown sisters, straight-laced Maura (Poehler) and eternal womanchild Kate (Fey) who find out their parents (Dianne Weist and James Brolin) are selling the family home they lived in as teenagers.

The girls, furious, decide to travel down to Florida and talk their folks out of it, but the latter just want to unclutter their lives and enjoy their retirement. Soon discovering they have no real choice, the girls decide to give their memories of girlhood a send-off by throwing a massive bender of a party.

Hollywood screenwriting ensues – from a gaggle of hot Asian party girls who run the nail salon to the oak-like drug dealer (John Cena). The characters are given a bit of ‘dimension’ by giving Maura a love interest in the cute guy a few doors down and Kate a daughter that can’t respect her until she grows up a bit, but it’s all in service of moments tailored more to sell the flick in trailers than to mine true movie comedy.

But despite all that, the presence of Poehler and Fey makes it worthwhile. Just like the Horrible Bosses films were kept buoyant by the lead trio’s chemistry despite being pretty dumb, Fey and Poehler are natural partners on screen and their relationship – both in their characters and the way they relate as comediennes – is a pleasure to watch.

It’s just that as soon as the movie looks away from their combined shtick for even a minute – including the same Porky’s-inspired party shenanigans we’ve had in the genre for decades now – you can see just how bland the whole thing is.

DVD : (Extras Unpreviewed)