330. Late Night; movie review

LATE NIGHT
Cert 15
99 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language

For decades, Emma Thompson has been one of my favourite actresses but I think she is tainting her talent with some of her movie choices.
Late Night is bog average and comes on the back of the ghastly Men In Black International, the lamentable Johnny English Strikes Again (maybe a favour to Rowan Atkinson?) and the questionable The Children Act.
Indeed, while she has been lending her voice to some cracking animations such as Beauty And The Beast, we have to stretch back to 2013 and Saving Mr Banks for the last time she appeared in a high-quality live-action movie.
Anyway,  in Nisha Ganatra's film, she plays a longstanding TV chat show host who has drifted so far into complacency that she faces being sacked.
Her arrogance is reflected in her lack of empathy with her show's writers with whom she seldom interacts.
Consequently, jokes misfire and her natural comedy has long stopped shining through.
Her potential saviour comes in a new addition to the team (Mindy Kaling) who happens to be in the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time depending on your point of view.
Kaling is a woman of colour who has entered a white man's world - which seems rather ironic considering their boss is female.
Anyway, she has to have wit and guile to prove herself and, at the same time, Thompson's TV star finally begins to find her softer side as she realises how much she loves and needs her show.
As always Thompson is worth watching, combining a neat line in caustic with a later sprinkling of apologetic.
But the other characters, with the exception of Kaling's, are so fawning that it is impossible to empathise with them.
And that leaves the feisty new writer but I even struggled with her because her actions seemed so unlikely.
All things considered, Late Night has good intentions but misfires.

Reasons to watch: Emma Thompson
Reasons to avoid: Not funny enough

Laughs: None
Jumps: One
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? Japanese actress Tetsuko Kuroyanagi holds the Guinness World Record for the most talk show episodes hosted by the same presenter, having fronted more than 10,000 episodes of Tetsuko no Heya (Tetsuko’s Room).

Final word. Mindy Kaling: “I remember, vividly, what it’s like to be the only woman or minority in a writer’s room when I was 24-years-old. But I also remember, more recently, the frustration of being an employer and being a little complacent, a little bit bored with your job." News.com.au

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