Genre: Comedy
Premise: (from IMDB) Tim thinks he’s invited the woman of his dreams on a work retreat to Hawaii, realizing too late he mistakenly texted someone from a nightmare blind date.
About: I think it was William Goldman who once said, if a producer is setting a movie on a tropical island, that movie is not about making a movie. It’s about getting a paid three month vacation. Well, the glove fits. This is another Adam Sandler movie (his fourth Netflix movie set on an island?), except he ripped David Spade off the end of the bench and threw him in, probably because Sandler was so exhausted from having to make a real movie in Uncut Gems. Writers Pappas and Barnett are best known for writing a few episodes of The Righteous Gemstones. Oh and The Do-Over, which also starred Spade.
Writer: Chris Pappas & Kevin Barnett
Details: 90 minutes
The Wrong Missy was the number 1 movie on Netflix over the weekend. You can’t stop the Sandler. What’s interesting about Sandler PRODUCING The Wrong Missy instead of starring in it is that Spade is more of a straight man than Sandler.
This forced them to work harder on the script, since they couldn’t operate under normal Sandler Netflix Rules (show up on location, let cameras roll while Sandler does his schtick, cut, on to the next scene). This resulted in some semblance of a movie with structure and plot.
But, overall, The Wrong Missy is yet another example of how the Hollywood comedy has hit an all time low. The town doesn’t know how to make them anymore. And we’re going to see why that is and if we can change it.
The concept here isn’t a bad one. Tim Morris works a generic office job where he’s trying to get a promotion. If only he could somehow connect with his boss, who barely knows he exists.
Reeling from a divorce, Tim tries to get back out there, meeting up with Missy, a girl his mother set him up with. Missy is an out-of-control zero-filter freak show. The date is so bad Tim actually tries to sneak out of the bathroom window. He considers it a win when he makes it out of the date with all his limbs in tact.
Then, at the airport, Tim bumps into a stunning woman who’s ALSO named Missy (to show you how uninspired the writing is, the two literally bump into each other then accidentally switch bags, forcing them to reunite over a drink at the bar when they miss their flights).
Tim later texts the good Missy to join him on a business trip to Hawaii but, wouldn’t you know it, the bad Missy shows up instead. The bad Missy proceeds to get wasted. But during this legendary blackout, Missy uses an old hypnosis trick on Tim’s boss so that he now thinks Tim is his nana, who he loves more than anything.
To the frustration of all of Tim’s co-workers, who are all angling for that promotion, Tim can now do no wrong in his boss’s eyes. And to make things even better, Missy calms down so Tim actually starts to like her! But what will happen when Missy’s hypnosis wears off? Will Tim still be able to get the promotion???
Look. I’m all for a good comedy right now. People need to relieve some stress, laugh a little. And The Wrong Missy isn’t catastrophically “Like a Boss” bad.
I liked the setup. It’s clever commentary on today’s society where we hide behind our phones and our little texty fingers so that we never truly get rejected. That ends up costing our hero, who ends up inviting the wrong girl on his trip.
But once we get to the plot of The Wrong Missy, the writing falls apart.
To understand why that is, you must understand the two things you’re trying to do with comedy.
You’re trying to create funny characters.
You’re trying to create a plot that gives the specific funny traits about your character the best chance to shine.
A great example of number 1 is Alan from the Hangover. The world’s most socially unaware man who talks first and thinks later.
A great example of number 2 is Big. There’s a moment where Tom Hanks’s character brings his date back to his place. Here, the plot is specifically exploiting the comedic situation of a 12 year old boy living in a grown’s man’s body. To him, when you go back to your place, it’s a sleepover. For her, it means you’re going to have sex. The fact that the characters aren’t anywhere near the same page is what makes the scene so funny. It’s designed to exploit the specific comedy roots of the character.
We can debate whether Missy is a funny character or not. She’s basically no-filter to the nth degree and I’m sure mileage will vary depending on if you like outrageous characters or hate them.
But where “Missy” screws up is in the second department. The script doesn’t construct a plot that properly takes advantage of its key comedic foil – Missy.
The way this situation SHOULD work is that Tim needs this promotion more than anything. Preferably, there would also be the threat of him losing his job if he’s not promoted. You do this so that the stakes are sky-high. We must feel the pressure of Tim needing to get this promotion. Because if you don’t have stakes in a comedy… THEN NOTHING IN ANY OF THE SCENES MATTERS.
It doesn’t matter if Tim screws up because he’s right back to square 1, where he was at the beginning of the movie. So he’s lost nothing.
Contrast this with David Spade’s most successful comedy, Tommy Boy. In that movie, he and Tommy were in charge of keeping Tommy’s recently deceased dad’s company alive. If they fail to keep enough clients on their road trip, the company goes bankrupt.
Once you have stakes, the audience is more invested in the scenes because the scenes now MATTER. And once a scene matters, the jokes become WAAAAYYYYY funnier. It’s funny when Tommy says something stupid in the meeting that loses them the client because it actually has consequences. If there are no consequences, there is no laughter.
Bringing this back to The Wrong Missy, the way you’re supposed to construct this plot is to have the out-of-control Missy get in the way of Tim getting the promotion. She should be constantly destroying his chances at every turn, forcing Tim to clean up the mess and try again.
But the writers make the odd decision to have Missy HELP Tim. She puts his boss under hypnosis so that he’ll like Tim, which basically ensures Tim will get the promotion. So if Missy’s outrageous antics aren’t ruining anything, where’s the comedy coming from?
The writers attempt to have it come for Missy’s character. That’s where they’re hoping to get all the laughs. But actors desperately trying to make a character funny when the plot isn’t creating any laughs on its own is the surest way to kill a comedy. And that’s what happens. We’re bored by Missy’s schtick within 15 minutes. Yet we’re still being asked to laugh at it 75 minutes in.
I suppose the writers’ rebuttal would be that the movie isn’t about the promotion. It’s about Tim and Missy and if they’re going to end up together or not (they throw some doubt into this when the GOOD Missy shows up late in the trip).
I understand that argument but my response would be, why only invest in half the movie – the characters – when you can invest in both the characters AND the plot. If they had put more emphasis on the plot to give the story some actual stakes, it wouldn’t have just improved the plot side, it would’ve bolstered the character side too, since now there are some actual consequences to the characters’ actions.
This movie wasn’t bad but it sure as heck highlights our need for a good comedy again. When was the last funny comedy? Five years ago? Ten???
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the stream
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: When you’re looking for laughs in a comedy, one of the easiest ways to find them is through an ironic character. The only funny character in The Wrong Missy is the HR Rep. This is the guy who’s supposed to be looking out for each and every employee in the company. Instead, he obsessively looks over all their private e-mails and texts (especially Tim’s) for his own entertainment. These characters are easy to create when you understand irony. Every comedy should have at least one!
