Some decent laughs and performances, but it doesn't offer much of anything new.
Rough Night, the new comedy directed by Lucia Aniello and written by Aniello & Paul W. Downs, finds old college friends reuniting in Miami for a weekend of bachelorette hijinks, the reopening of old wounds, and the execution of more than one bad idea. Boasting a talented cast including Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Zoë Kravitz, Kate McKinnon, Ilana Glazer, and more, Rough Night never breaks the mold of the bachelor/bacherlotte party movie (which is arguably its own film sub-genre). Instead, Rough Night coasts through moments that will feel reminiscent of other bachelor/bachelorette party movies to many in the audience. And yet, due to the more than capable cast, the movie tilts in a direction more favorable than not.
It is Johansson who is at the center of things as Jess, our bride-to-be, with McKinnon, Kravitz, Glazer, and Bell as the rest of her bachelorette party troupe. While the actresses make their characters believable, they are not given the most fleshed-out of personalities to portray. Instead, each member of the bachelorette group become easily identifiable as being the needy one (Bell), or the weird Australian one (McKinnon), or the activist (Glazer), or the one whose life isn't as perfect as it seems (Kravitz), or the one who just might be able to have it all (Johansson).
As the movie progresses, and the weekend continues, tensions flare, external circumstances get in the way of a good time, what starts out as a fabulous Miami getaway becomes progressively worse, and the women fear for what their future may bring. There are misunderstandings and shenanigans and more than a few sex jokes. This, again, makes it all a relatively standard entry.
One of the standard bits that appears in the movie, a moment that allows for much of the rest of the film to take place, revolves around a decision to not call the police when the law must so very definitely become involved in the goings-on. Rough Night, wonderfully, is actually able to make the decision to not call the cops understandable (if just barely). It is so clearly the incorrect decision, but the filmmakers and cast make the women's position believable at that moment. It is a crucial element in the film and one that is well-handled despite being wrong-headed.
As ought to be clear, there are moments of Rough Night which feel as though the movie might head into some very dark territory, and while the story does go a little ways down that path, and some very bad things do happen to the women, it is all nowhere near as dark as it might be. Part of the reason for this is that no matter what happens, the feeling's never lost that somehow, some way, this is all going to work out.
Along the same lines, Rough Night, while definitely R-rated, regularly seems to pull back from a sense of promised raunchiness. By no means is foul humor completely absent, but the movie doesn't insist on repeatedly going after it when other jokes might be available. And the movie does succeed at generating laughs, enough to make it feel as though time hasn't been wasted sitting through this particular Rough Night.
The Verdict
As a whole Rough Night fails to stand out in a way either good or bad. Things at the bachelorette party do get crazy, they do go where no bachelorette (or bachelor) party should ever go, but it is territory other movies about this rite of passage have indeed gone before. The characters aren't terribly deep, but the performances are winning. Johansson, Bell, McKinnon, and the rest are able to offer laughs even when the audience has an idea of the joke that's coming. Rough Night is a movie that, perhaps, is a lot like one of these parties – it manages to be remembered not as the best time ever, but fondly.
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