Furlough is a 2018 comedy about an inmate who is granted one weekend out of prison to see her dying mother while a rookie correction officer struggles to keep her under control.
If I say female prison movie you probably get a very specific image in your mind, maybe depending on how long you’ve been watching movies. Thoughts of buxom young ladies in tied off denim shirts and lots of cat fights are practically a staple of the genre, but of course, modern times are finally shifting that expectation, with hits like Orange is the New Black leading the pack. With Laurie Collyer‘s latest Furlough, we also skip many of the traditional clichés of that genre though take a turn for comedy instead, delivering a standard mix-matched racial pairing and a long list of jokes that mostly misfire.
Nicole Stevens (Tessa Thompson) is a hardworking but stressed out part-time corrections officer for an Upstate New York women’s prison. She lives at home with her mother (Whoopi Goldberg), a neurotic diabetic. She longs for a chance to get full-time on the job, and that opportunity comes along when she’s offered an escort position from the warden (Erik Griffin), a karaoke-loving boss who dangles the job like a carrot if she goes. She’s to bring Joan Anderson (Melissa Leo), a longtime inmate to see her dying mother on a 36-hour deathbed visit. As Joan only has 6 months left on her sentence she is quite willing to follow the rules, however the trip becomes an odyssey as Anderson wants to better prepare herself for her final visit with her mother.
It’s almost impossible not to immediately think of the Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte action comedy 48hrs. though that film had much more edge to its gritty story. It’s a little hard to know what Collyer is going for, the tonal ups and down only part of a general unevenness that strips away lots of the story’s potential. Once out of jail, Anderson seems a model prisoner, even wearing cuffs in public, but wants to spruce herself up before seeing her mother (she’s donning thick blonde cornrows and her prison green garbs). This has the duo going to a beauty shop, grabbing a bite to eat and attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Of course, Anderson finds a way to tweak that last one into something a little different.
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Naturally, there are lessons to be learned along the way, the uptight Nicole on a path to more independence from her mother while Joan gets a chance to bond with hers, the relationships at the heart of the story. Nicole get harangued by her mother with constant phone calls, the woman seemingly unable to function without her eldest daughter, and Goldberg takes that role to obvious corners. Meanwhile Nicole’s sister Brandy (La La Anthony) is oblivious that Nicole has responsibility beyond the family. That’s not to say there aren’t some good moments as both Thompson and Leo – who deserve better – struggle to overcome the severe limitations of their characters. At times, it sort of harkens back to the classic Midnight Run, though isn’t nearly as sharp. Even a late appearance by Anna Paquin can’t quite pump this up with any momentum.
With a generic score that accompanies it all with the usual comedic bounce of a television sitcom, this is a frustratingly bland endeavour that has A-list talent in a B-list production. While it’s always good to see both Thompson and Leo on screen, this is disappointment.