Review: The Wrong Missy

David Spade and Lauren Lapkus in “The Wrong Missy.”

Dir. Tyler Spindel. 90 minutes.
.5/5

It’s not that “The Wrong Missy” is an ugly movie: Elem Klimov’s “Come and See” is both ugly and brilliant. It’s not that “The Wrong Missy” is a stupid movie: Steven Seagal’s “On Deadly Ground” is stupid, but also delightfully entertaining. “The Wrong Missy” is more than that: not just ugly and stupid, but boring, garish, witlessly crass, disgusting and miserable.

Tim (an elderly David Spade) is looking for true love. In a whirlwind of romantic passion carried out in a broom closet, he meets a beautiful and accomplished woman named Missy, and decides to invite her to a corporate retreat in Hawaii. However, he inadvertently invites “the wrong Missy” (Lauren Lapkus), an uncontrollably loud and obnoxious woman who threatens to disrupt his chances at a promotion.

“The Wrong Missy” is a film that mistakes shouted improprieties for jokes and seeks comedy in episodes of sexual and violent behavior that are more unsettling than amusing. At one point, Missy interrupts a romantic rejection by implying that she might respond by committing suicide. It’s perversely absorbing, in the same way that ISIS propaganda is perversely absorbing. You ask yourself, “Who made this stuff? What were they thinking? And what were they hoping the audience would get out of it?”

Lapkus, who is boundlessly energetic and possesses an impressive facial elasticity, could conceivably be good if paired with a proper director and a proper script. However, “The Wrong Missy” is inane and soulless — cringe comedy, minus the comedy. At least David Spade and Nick Swardson got a few weeks in Hawaii out of it.

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