Movie Review - Hot Pursuit

Hot Pursuit * (out of 5) (PG-13) Reese Witherspoon has enjoyed a wonderful career. After years of success in a wide range of comedies and dramas, she formed her own production company, Pacific Standard. It hit the ground running with two successful and acclaimed features, Gone Girl and Wild. Alas, this third time is not the charm. Seldom has madcap comedy with high-profile stars (Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara) gone so wrong. The former plays a diminutive Texas cop, assigned to protect the latter and her husband on a drive to a Dallas courthouse to testify against the biggest and baddest drug cartel kingpin. That puts bullseyes squarely on their backs, forcing the two women to scramble for survival against ridiculous odds, while feuding with each other all the way.

The premise is older than the TV antics of Lucy and Ethel in this female variation on all types of cop-buddy mayhem. In the 1980s, Rick Moranis and Steve Martin plied these waters in My Blue Heaven; Shelly Long and Bette Midler’s version, Outrageous Fortune, followed a few years later. Both were so-so slapstick offerings, which is still more palatable than this exercise in forced, unfunny action. Witherspoon plays a by-the-book drone with no discernible personality, and much to be desired on the skill side, as well. Vergara’s character is an even more amped-up edition of Modern Family’s Gloria. Longer exposure is not flattering for her, or helpful to the film.

Curiously, a clever montage of Witherspoon’s childhood, seemingly raised in the back seat of her dad’s squad car, bodes well for the rest. But questions soon arise as to which of the credited writers (David Feeny, John Quaintance) wrote what, since whoever did the opening couldn’t have had much involvement in the main story. Both have mostly written for sitcoms; perhaps neither was ready for the big screen. Even so, Witherspoon’s career has been characterized by better judgment, not only in her Oscarworthy gigs, but other commercially successful fare, and my own under-the-radar favorite, the wry comedy Election. How could Producer Reese not have realized how badly this was going for Actress Reese, and the looming lousy return on investment for both, in time to save or shelve it? What boons were lost to the ages for want of an on-set rewrite?
I may need to watch Election again to cleanse the palate from this one. (5/8/15)