Horrible Bosses

I was not impressed with the first half hour of Horrible Bosses. The movie was amusing enough, but it seemed to be hitting the same tired notes over and over, and the energy seemed off. But then, a funny thing started to happen. The movie quickly picked up steam, the energy became palpable, and the laughs started hitting hard and fast. By the time it was over, I was ready to put it alongside Cedar Rapids and Bridesmaids as one of my favorite comedies of 2011.

Horrible Bosses started to work for me when it threw caution and common sense to the wind, and just went full tilt in its own madness. Director Seth Gordon (Four Christmases) shows a real style for over the top comic energy. He's also smart enough to just sit back, and let his talented comic cast do what they do best. We can tell that much of the dialogue was improvised while we're watching it, and the outtakes during the end credits only run the point home. This was a fun movie to make, and it's just as much fun to watch. The film's three heroes are a trio of friends. They're nice guys, maybe a little too nice. They're played by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis. They have a natural chemistry during their early scenes, which give the impression that they could be friends in real life. But it's when they start getting in over their heads that the three actors start to really show their stuff, and deliver the big laughs.

As the film opens, all three of the men are under the thumbs of their respective horrible bosses. Nick Hendricks (Bateman) is an office drone who's been working like a dog for years in the hopes that his cold-hearted cynic of a boss (Kevin Spacey) will notice him, and give him the promotion he feels he deserves. Naturally, the boss winds up giving himself the title that Nick was gunning for, yet still expects Nick to work just as hard as he always had. Spacey is wonderful here, filling his portrayal with so much comic malice, we can almost feel Nick's frustration. Next we have Dale Arbus (Day), a dental assistant who recently got engaged, and now finds himself being sexually harassed by his female sex-bomb boss, Julia (Jennifer Aniston, playing against type, and doing a great job). She will resort to any means to have sex with Dale, and is not below using blackmail and threats of breaking up his impending marriage. Finally, there's Kurt Buckman (Sudeikis), who at the beginning, is the only guy happy at work. He's got a good job at a chemical factory, and is good friends with the kindly old man he works for (Donald Sutherland). But then, the boss has a heart attack while driving home one day, and the company is immediately taken over by the old man's coke fiend son, Bobby (Colin Farrell), who immediately changes things at the company for the worst.

So now, all three of the guys hate the people they're working for, and routinely meet at a family restaurant to gripe to each other about how bad they have it. It's during one of these conversations that Kurt throws out the idea that the world would be better off if all three of their bosses were dead. The friends initially laugh off the idea, but as things escalate at their individual jobs, it seems that murder is indeed the only option. They go to a seedy club to seek out a hitman, and what they get is Dean "MF" Jones. (I'll leave you to find out what "MF" means.) He's played by Jamie Foxx in a hilarious performance. Dean's advice is to follow the idea expressed in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, and murder each other's bosses in an "accident", so that it won't look suspicious, and that no one will be able to lay the blame on them. The screenplay is smart enough to realize that this idea has also been done in yet another movie, as when the three guys hear this plan, they immediately think of Danny Devito's Throw Momma From the Train.

Where the movie goes from here, I will not reveal, as this is the point that Horrible Bosses truly starts to let loose and build into something hilarious. The movie gets a lot of mileage out of the fact that these are nice guys, and probably have never done anything wrong in their lives. (Although one of them does have a record as being a sex offender, after a very unfortunate accident led to a misunderstanding.) They don't know the first thing about setting up a murder, staking out a victim to learn their daily routine, or covering their tracks, which leads to some of the film's biggest laughs. These guys aren't exactly dumb, they're just in way over their heads, and don't know how to act in the situations they find themselves in. This lends the film a strange sweetness. Yes, this is a very dark and raunchy comedy, but the guys in the middle of it all are just so likable. Their dialogue and banter is also constantly witty and genuinely funny. Like I said, a lot of it was most likely improvised, and the movie is all the better for it.

This is not just a funny movie, but it's also one that's been cast very well. With the three leads, Bateman makes a great exasperated straight man, while Day and Sudeikis get big laughs out of their observations and mishaps. And then there are the bosses themselves, which finds Spacey, Aniston, and Farrell (unrecognizable, and looking a bit like Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder) truly reveling their roles. While Spacey gets the most screen time of the three, it's Aniston who makes the biggest impression as the manipulative and sexy dentist dominatrix. She's obviously having a blast playing against the kind of roles she usually gets, and never wastes an opportunity to get a well-earned laugh. There's a sense of joy coming from this cast. They're obviously having fun, and it comes through in the film itself.

Horrible Bosses does somewhat resemble a raunchy sitcom at times, but the movie is so spirited and often hilarious, I never really cared. This is the kind of movie where you just need to let go and enjoy. It's very rare to find a comedy that's not only funny, but allows all of its lead stars in on the fun. It's even more rare when the audience ends up having just as much fun. This is one of the more pleasant surprises of the summer.

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