Walk of Shame is a 2014 comedy about a reporter’s dream of becoming a news anchor becoming compromised after a one-night stand leaves her stranded in downtown L.A. without a phone, car, ID or money – and only 8 hours to make it to the most important job interview of her life.
Elizabeth Banks is one of those actors you say to yourself, “What’s she been in?” and then do a quick check and say, “Oh right! She was in that!” Never quite crossing over to superstardom, she’s been on the cusp where she shows up in some pretty big films but isn’t always remembered for being in them. Fans of the Hunger Games franchise will recognize her, and LEGO movie-goers know her voice. She had a small turn in all three Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films and I really liked her in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, yet somehow over the years, despite a very commendable filmography, she remains just shy of triple A success. Either way, what’s so great about her is how adept she is at comedy, almost fearless, often using her good looks to lure you into the role and then spin it with some dark twisty laughs. Few can do that well though Banks sits comfortably amid the leaders in this group.
So let’s talk about 2014’s misfire Walk of Shame, written and directed by Steven Brill, most notable for a few titles with Adam Sandler. It was released in theaters at the start of the summer in 2014 and quickly disappeared, having failed to recoup not even half its budget, leaving critics perplexed with is ugly story and fans just about dismissing it entirely. It’s a film that lives in an alternate reality for sure, one with a singular motivation and not much else, following a tried and true formula while trying to be edgy and raunchy. Even as bad as it is – and it is bad – it’s hard to walk away (in shame) from it and not feel a little something for Banks, who commits like she’s trying to win a championship ring, putting herself through the ringer while apparently believing her dignity is disposable.
She stars as Meghan Miles, a popular field reporter for Los Angeles news station waiting for her big break. However, when she’s passed over for an anchor post (while her boyfriend dumps her), she decides to go out with her friends on a bender to help feel better, getting absolutely sloshed and ending up out on a fire escape, misinterpreting which door is the exit. Saved by a part-time bartender named Gordon (James Marsden), she goes home with him and gets even further hammered, waking up early in the morning in his bed, he in her panties and she in the skimpy yellow dress she borrowed from her friend. She then learns that she has another shot at the anchor job but she’s got to get to the station today. With only her keys and her clothes to her name, she slinks away to head home, just in time to see her car getting towed. She then loses the phone and thus begins the odyssey that sees her traveling about the city having various encounters with all sorts of misfits – most of whom mistake her for a stripper or prostitute – of which grow to such proportions, her exploits make the news. See the irony?
There’s hardly a single moment in Walk of Shame that rings true, though it’s not like the filmmakers are striving for such. This is meant to be loopy with the beautiful Banks in a ‘slutty’ dress getting mixed up in string of off-color situations that in real life would most likely leave her very violently violated or incredibly dead. In many ways, one might draw some connections to the brilliant 1985 dark comedy After Hours, the unconventional Martin Scorsese film that travelled a naive young man (Griffin Dunne) through a similarly odd night of misadventures, though that film was far edgier and cryptic, taking risks that Walk of Shame simply isn’t loaded for. The only fuel this one has is playing with the juxtaposition of putting a stunning woman in ugly circumstances and letting Banks run with it. For that, it sort of hits a stride, mostly because she is perfectly cast and is so unafraid to make herself look ridiculous for a laugh, it actually has some interest. Unfortunately, the script never empowers her as it should, ending up soiling what could have been a small treatise on such, instead all too flaccidly letting it be obvious slapstick that is hopelessly contrived. Ever see Kathleen Turner is Romancing the Stone? That’s how it’s done right.
Walk of Shame could have been a pretty sturdy little number for elevating Banks further into the mainstream, and it’s probably a little unfair that the film didn’t do it, the script more likely finding success if the genders were reversed. However, even with its blink-or-you’ll miss it blip in cinema history, it’s sort of an important film for Banks herself, a solid little showcase that proves she is – even if the film let her down – way more than able to hold up a movie, a talented physical comedian with an appealing wink in her eye. For that, perhaps Walk of Shame is worth a look.