The critically acclaimed rom-com Late Night is a welcome contrast from the usual summer fare. Though not part of a franchise, it may actually be seen almost as a sequel to an earlier film, The Devil Wears Prada, in that it shows a powerful woman using her position to terrorize her subordinates.
Unfortunately for Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson), the host of a long-running late-night talk show, her ratings are slipping. She is taken to task not only for this, but also for having no women on her team of writers. So, in a set of unlikely circumstances, a vacancy on that writing team is filled by the aspiring Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling), whose only experience until now has been working in a chemical manufacturing plant.
All of this provides the set-up for Newbury, with the assistance of Patel, to save her show. This allows the film to address such issues as gender equality in the workplace, the balance of power in society, and even ageism. In this regard, Kaling, who authored the script, is perhaps being opportunistic, but thanks to Thompson’s dynamic performance, the film largely succeeds in its sounding of these themes.
In fact, the film succeeds on almost all levels because of Thompson’s sparkling performance. She is sharp and devastating in her role as the boss from hell. That one actually enjoys her nastiness prepares the audience for the revelation – spoiler alert! – that Newbury also has a softer side, eventually made apparent in her ultimately revealed vulnerability as she faces probable failure and in her warm and loving relationship with her adoring husband (John Lithgow, in another fine performance).
For me, the weakest link in the film is Mindy Kaling. (Full disclosure: her successful comedic performances, especially on television, have somehow passed me by.) I’m somewhat surprised the jokes in the film are not particularly funny, giving rise only to the occasional chuckle.
Perhaps the sharpest comic note in the film, symbolic of the way the television host treats her subordinates, is her refusal to learn the names of her scriptwriters, instead addressing them by number. As to the romantic element, it seems to be thrown in only to provide some sort of background to Kaling’s character; it certainly adds little to the plot.
At the same time, the concern with sexism in the workplace is largely undercut in that the head of the network for whom Newbury works is a woman – unless the point is that women are as guilty of undervaluing women in the workplace as are many men.
Let’s hope we’ve seen the last of comedies dealing with nasty women bosses. Aside, though, from some objectionable language, which nowadays one has virtually come to expect, Late Night is otherwise indeed pleasantly diverting. It can expect to do well at the box office thanks to its topical relevance, the popularity of late-night shows, a humanizing plot development as one learns more about the protagonist’s past, and above all Emma Thompson’s outstanding performance.
