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Canberra Today 15°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: ‘The Heat’ (MA) ***

IN this girl-buddy cop movie, Sandra Bullock plays FBI agent Sarah and Melissa McCarthy plays Boston plain-clothes detective Shannon.

Sarah, very likely still a virgin, is a Yale graduate with 12 years’ service, working by the book and ambitious to rise above the glass ceiling. Resolving a drug case in Boston will enhance her prospects.

Streetwise Shannon is the uncrowned queen of the Boston detective division, running her personal case list in her own way and working on the same case as Sarah is.

The conflict of personal styles forms the principal plank of Katie Dippold’s screenplay. The case is a minor element. Director Paul Feig manages the combination adroitly, keeping the action progressing, keeping the conflict between two strong principal characters active.

The film is by no means perfect, but if Shannon’s potty mouth does not offend you, the prospect of your coming away from it feeling comfortably entertained is good.

Its treatment of America’s law-enforcement culture takes no prisoners. For every class of crime, there is a specialist agency, State, Federal, sometimes both. And while they may share objectives, they tend to guard information. Agency rivalries underpin the initial rancour between the two women. Bringing them to common ground takes quite a while, beside which, not surprisingly, bringing the bad guys to retribution takes a distant second place.

 At Dendy, Capitol 6, Hoyts and Limelight

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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