LATE NIGHT

LATE NIGHT is a comedy about a young Indian-American woman who improbably lands a job as a comedy writer for a veteran female late-night talk show host in danger of losing her show. LATE NIGHT is well written and engaging, but it has a strong Romantic, politically correct, feminist worldview celebrating diversity, with excessive R-rated foul language, though it’s mitigated by some solid moral, redemptive elements promoting marriage, forgiveness and being nicer to other people.

A young Indian-American woman named Molly (played by Mindy Kaling, who also wrote the screenplay), works as a quality control inspector at a chemical plant in Pennsylvania but dreams of working in the comedy business. When longtime late-night host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) learns that her ratings are collapsing since she’s out of touch with the current zeitgeist, and she has only one year left to be on her major TV network, she puts out the word to hire a “diverse” writer.

Molly lands an interview through an incredibly clever tactic and wins the job because she’s the only female who applied. The rest of the writing staff are white men, who resent Molly’s presence immediately for having no comedy background and being an obvious case of tokenism.

At first, Molly fires back wisecracks in reply to their resentment and is filled with politically correct self-pity, wishing the world would open before her just for being a “woman of color.” Eventually, though, she realizes that just as Katherine fought her way to success nearly 30 years ago, she too has to prove herself, work hard and truly be funny on the job. She also saves Katherine at a press event that is going disastrously, by presenting herself as a bold move by Katherine. As she and her boss become friends, Katherine learns to take comedic chances again and find her spark, while Molly learns that nothing comes free in life.

However, crisis hits when a disgruntled rival reveals that Katherine engaged in a one-night fling with her male head writer three years ago. The news humiliates her and devastates her Parkinson’s-stricken husband (Lithgow), forcing Katherine to make the biggest decisions of her life and career.

LATE NIGHT is an extremely well-written and engaging comedy that’s rated R for obscene language, but otherwise maintains a kind of innocence. This is the kind of movie that could easily have dropped in casual affairs for the female lead, yet doesn’t. Also, when Katherine’s affair is revealed, the movie handles the thorny subject with great taste and a touching portrayal of marital forgiveness and reconciliation.

That said, the movie has a strong Romantic, politically correct, feminist worldview that celebrates a leftist view of “diversity.” Though the movie shows that Molly takes her embittered, victim attitude too far, there’s a five-minute sequence that mocks Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. Finally, the ending returns to the issue of diversity that implies another politically correct attack on white males. Ultimately, LATE NIGHT turns out to be too politically annoying.