Mindy Kaling wrote and stars in Late Night, a movie that is being marketed as a comedy–but is actually a drama. Emma Thompson brilliantly plays Katherine Newbury, the only woman hosting a late night U.S. talk show. The character of Katherine Newbury is arrogant, acerbic, and driven for Perfection. Newbury doesn’t bother to learn the names of her writers, she simply assigns them numbers for identification (Mindy Kaling’s character, Molly Patel, is Number 8).
The obvious problem confronting Katherine Newbury is that her show is losing its audience. Ratings are falling. Newbury ignores the Internet and Social Media which alienates her from attracting a younger audience. The Network plans to cancel Katherine Newbury’s show. Although Newbury has no friends or children, she does have a husband played by John Lithgow who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. And that becomes a problem, too.
The movie starts out focused on Molly Patel breaking into an all white male writers room, but shifts to Katherine Newbury’s struggle to hold on to her TV show. Yes, there’s humor. Emma Thompson performs a stand-up session where she initially fails to connect with the audience, but then finds her mojo and leaves them laughing. Very clever acting and writing.
It’s early in the movie season, but I’d nominate Emma Thompson for Best Actress based on this performance. GRADE: B+
I’ve been a fan of Emma Thompson’s since Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War in 1987.
Jeff, I fell in love with Emma Thompson in 1993 when I saw MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. I’ve been a fan every since.
Pretty sure I saw her in something before catching her series THOMPSON ca. 1988, but don’t know what it was…
I love Emma Thompson, and sometimes wonder if she ever regrets taking out that restraining order.
Dan, you are just one of a multitude of Emma Thompson fans! Count me in, too!
Emma was fine but the movie didn’t work for me because Emma or whatever her name was was was clearly not meant for the type of show she was hosting. She should have moved to a cable network and had a Dick Cavett type of show. Also Kaling’s humor is not late night humor. It is sitcom humor. And she continues to need to cast herself as a femme fatale, having two men pursuing her. What restraining order? I’ll look it up.
Patti, you’re right about the Dick Caveat format. I also didn’t buy the one-night-stand, either. Mindy is indulging in some sort of romantic fantasy.
Dan suggests that Thompson took one out on him.
Y U C K
Rick, LATE NIGHT addresses issues like aging, gender, and workplace dynamics.