Rough Night

Rough Night deals with a group of friends having a supposedly fun bachelorette weekend, only to find themselves in trouble when they accidentally kill a guy. It is headlined by a bunch of comedic stars and some well known names to give it star power. By the way the trailer looked, it should have been a lot of fun with hijinks, but the movie either missed its mark or didn't know where to position itself - or possibly both.

It's established early on that these are a group of people who have been friends for a long time, and all leading separate lives from each other. It is during their weekend that their friendship problems come to play, and it is something expected from this kind of movie. I didn't mind this because it does tend to come up with movies involving friendships, but these details don't give much depth to the relationships. Rather, it turns out to be a venting session. Some of the problems are obvious as it is peppered out through the movie, but I didn't really care for most of it. 

The story had the potential to be funny. These actresses are good, but the writing has to give them something more to push the comedy over the edge, or care for the characters' well being. It could have ventured into dark comedy territory, explored the possibilities a bit more. The layout of the scenario made it possible for the movie to explore another direction, rather that sticking to the fiance bit. There is the subplot with the neighbors and one of the characters, but as much as I love Zoe Kravitz having more screen time, it's a bit out of place. Beyond the fiance bit (which is at the opposite spectrum of the neighbors), nobody else had a subplot that could have helped with plot development. Direction aside, there were moments of comedy, but they were sparse. 

Everyone sings praises when it comes to Kate McKinnon but she was underused here. This was a waste of Kate McKinnon's talents! Her character was practically a caricature; she has no character development, and is easily pushed aside to the background. She had a scene where she sends herself to the beach and falls asleep, completely leaving the screen. She was there to antagonize Jillian Bell, but two sentences aside, this aspect isn't milked to its extent. I love McKinnon in SNL, but I don't think she's having the best roles for her talents.

In general, this was uneven. It had potential, it starred great actresses, but most of the comedy was a miss.