“Furlough” looks, sounds and plays like a comedy — albeit without the actual jokes.
The story of an African-American corrections officer tasked with taking a Caucasian inmate on a trip to see her dying mother, Laurie Collyer’s film assumes the racially-mismatched-buddy form of “48 Hrs.” and the contentious central dynamic of “Midnight Run,” except that its first draft-grade script lacks the absurdity necessary to elicit laughs, or the depth that might make it moving.
Caught between its competing urges, it merely squanders its accomplished leads Tessa Thompson and Melissa Leo in a listless purgatory.Uptight Nicole (Thompson) lives at home with, and cares for, her mom (Whoopi Goldberg), all while working at an upstate New York prison for women where she covets a full-time job.
She’s promised that position by her warden (Erik Griffin) if she agrees to babysit Joan (Leo) on a 36-hour excursion to visit her ailing mother,
Read full article
Leave a Reply