Desperados
Cast: Nasim Pedrad, Anna Camp, Sarah Burns, Lamorne Morris, Robbie Amell
Director: LP
In vitiated times like these with the Coronavirus pandemic refusing to bid us goodbye, Netflix's latest comedy, Desperados, comes as a diversion. It is romantic, somewhat silly, a trifle lewd and mostly girlie stuff, but it is miles apart from some of the Tamil (and once upon a time Hindi fare) films which stoop to buffoonery. Desperados comes at a rather lean time in the world of cinema. With summer around, there has been very little sunshine in the entertainment world, which otherwise would have seen some of the biggest blockbuster releases.
Desperados is a buddy movie, about three women friends who are very close to one another. Wesley (Nasim Pedrad) is unhappy and desperate. She seems to be over the hump, late thirties and does not have a regular job. Forced to steal food from the children she takes care of during the day, she is frantically hunting for a guy who will not just be her boyfriend, but also marry her. And the haste with which she goes about this while going on blind dates puts men off. They literally scoot. One fine evening as she slips and falls down while getting out of a bar, a handsome man, Jared (Robbie Amell), comes like a knight in shining armour and gets her back on her feet. A whirlwind affair follows, but when Jared disappears for five days after their first sexual encounter, Wesley feels that she has been dumped again.
Getting together with her best pals, Brooke (Anna Camp) and Kaylie (Sarah Burns), Wesley drinks herself silly and dashes off a nasty email to Jared. But just as she pushes the send button, she is informed that Jared has had an accident in Mexico and was in hospital. He calls her to say that his mobile is in his hotel room and that he was calling her from a hospital phone.
Wesley is shattered, and makes a trip along with her two friends to Mexico to try and retrieve Jared's mobile before he has a chance to see how nasty she can be. What follows is a hilarious adventure of the three women, with Wesley trying to move heaven and earth to get into Jared's room in the hotel to get his phone, while he is recovering in the hospital. The whole drama gets complicated when Wesley's earlier “bad date” also turns up at the Mexico hotel. It is a laugh riot after that with the hotel security guys hot on her heels when they find her trying to sneak into Jared's room.
The script from Ellen Rapoport puts Pedrad in some of the most embarrassing situations;she is accused of child molestation and has to run around nude when her clothes get lost beside the hotel swimming pool. The paedophile part and the business with dolphin get a bit irritating, the comedy itself sinks at times into exaggeration. But the movie zips by with unmistakable energy that can get a viewer sucked into the goings-on. Good enough for an evening under “house arrest" with a tub of popcorn or maybe peanuts!
Rating: 2.5/5
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