We’ve seen many interesting things in the movies so far this year. Barrier-breaking baseball players. James Franco playing both a wizard and an Alien. Monsters going to school. Fairy tale characters hunting monsters. If you can imagine it - whether it’s magicians pulling off heists or militants taking over the White House (twice) - then it’s probably been on the big screen so far this year.But you know what we haven’t seen a whole lot of in 2013? Women. Yes, there have been some strong female performances this year, featuring the likes of Jessica Chastain (Mama), Emma Stone (The Croods) and Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and Furious 6). But in two of those movies the characters were overshadowed by male leads, and the third was a horror movie that didn’t garner much mainstream appeal. Just look at the next few months and some of the most prominent actresses in Hollywood will be playing strippers (Jennifer Aniston, We Are the Millers) and porn stars (Amanda Seyfried, Lovelace), not to mention countless victims and love interests, but rarely anything of actual heft.That’s what makes The Heat such a stunning summer release. At first glance, the new film from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig (which after two years remains excellent if a tad overrated) appears to be fairly standard. An uptight FBI agent is transferred to Boston to hunt down a brutal and sadistic drug lord, only to be paired up with a slightly deranged, if effective, local police officer. That clash of personalities has been the basis for so many buddy cop projects, from Lethal Weapon to Tango & Cash to Men in Black to Rush Hour. But in this movie, the one major difference are the main characters, whose names are Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) and Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), making for perhaps the first major female buddy cop experience on the big screen.Feig brings it all to the table in his take on the oft-popular genre. All the honorable clichés are there, from the 70’s inspired opening credits to the out-of-left-field twists, and the director is more than happy to play to stereotypes when they’ll be the funniest (he takes special pride in the Boston accent, apparently). He’s in perfect control of the screenplay from Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold (in her feature film debut), keeping what works front and center, while cleverly hiding its few flaws, most notably the film’s rampant predictability. As in most like films, you can uncannily postulate every bit of plot development from the beginning, and the slapstick humor doesn’t change the fact that you know Ashburn and Mullins will solve their differences and solve the case in two hours without fail.But while that means The Heat is nowhere near as original as Bridesmaids, the fact is that this is a motion picture with serious bite. The humor is crisp, with Bullock and McCarthy’s charismatic engagements driving the film’s funniest gags. While Bullock is definitely within her Miss Congeniality wheelhouse of uptight white women, McCarthy is delightful in her response to every single item of note thrown in her way. Between her unorthodox methods of law enforcement, her screwball family (including Boston’s own New Kid on the Block member Joey McIntyre in a cameo role) and her penchant for acts of random violence, Mullins becomes the surprising soul of the movie. Despite not rising above what she’s accomplished before, Bullock shares an easy charisma with her comedic partner that shows she really can do no wrong.But what’s best about their pairing is that neither character fits snugly into any of the prepackaged female stereotypes we’ve become used to in cinema. Both Ashburn and Mullins are career women with serious character flaws, but whereas similar roles in other movies would belong to smug, unlikeable personas, here it’s where the fun is. While most female roles become wrapped around the singular theme of mother/wife/girlfriend, our heroines (and to a lesser extent, Jane Curtin as Mullins’ churlish mother) are tough, driven, professionals who get things done on their own terms and become stronger due to one their friendships with one another, not their commitment to a romantic interest or young child (while motherhood has some fierce heroes in Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor, wives and girlfriends rarely share that strength). It’s refreshing to see this kind of character get preferential treatment from Hollywood, as it’s impossible to tell when next someone like McCarthy will get to play the Riggs to Bullock’s Murtaugh.It's not perfect, of course. As I mentioned before, it’s predictable to a fault. Also, secondary characters are barely there, and the likes of Michael Rappaport, Demian Bichir, Marlon Wayans, professional You Tuber Spoken Reasons and Kaitlin Olson can barely make a lasting impression. This is definitely a two-lady show, and while they’re quite amazing, it would have been nice for them to get some genuine support from the rest of the cast. Finally, the story and edits aren’t quite as crisp or energizing as those in Feig’s previous work, most likely due to time constraints; after all, there’s a lot going on in those two hours. Finally, while it’s got laughs on par with This is the End, it hovers dangerously close to parody territory, threatening to derail all the good that Feig, Dippold and the actresses can achieve, though thankfully never quite crossing that line. There’s definitely a difference between the humor here and that in, say, Die Hard. Feig seems hesitant to go that extra-violent mile, and as a result The Heat doesn’t quite match the action/comedy balance it’s blatantly attempting to emulate.What makes The Heat such an excellent way to spend your afternoon is not that it’s a great movie – though it is quite good – but that it exists in the first place. In this rare instance, we’ve got a film in which the ladies are not only here to do the jobs of men before them, but to do them well and make those zany antics we’re used to from actors like Bruce Willis, Chris Tucker and Mel Gibson, and make them their own. This movie has tons of heart, is a lot of fun, and never lets up when it knows it’s secured you for the ride. Hopefully its success at the box office (a very strong second place finish behind Pixar’s Monsters University) – not to mention its connections to Bridesmaids – will encourage Hollywood producers that female-fronted projects like this are not the albatross around their necks that they have envisioned. For too long, Hollywood has been tossing out an endless cavalcade of testosterone-fueled flicks in an effort to garner the biggest monetary haul. With The Heat making its grand entrance, Bullock and McCarthy are helping to prove that women can not only play with the big boys, but that they can win. John C. Anderson is a freelance writer and movie enthusiast living in Boston. For his latest movie reviews, check out Hello, Mr. Anderson (http://latestissue.blogspot.com)
