Being a fan of Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, I was excited to watch Hot Pursuit (2015) the female buddy film comedy directed by Anne Fletcher. However, after about twenty minutes in, I lost interest in the film, but watched the entire 87 minutes of it, in order to complete this blog.
Witherspoon plays Cooper, an uptight officer who is assigned to accompany Deputy US Marshall Jackson to provide witness protection and escort Mr. Felipe and Mrs. Daniela Riva from San Antonio to Dallas, who both agreed to testify against Vicente Cortez, the dangerous drug cartel leader who was recently apprehended. The simple operation got complicated and went awry when two other masked groups arrived at the same time and exchanged shots leaving Deputy Jackson and Mr. Rivera dead.
Vergara is Daniella Riva, the newly widow and Cooper’s responsibility to protect. Riva is depicted as the stereotypical trophy wife. A sexy, hot headed, loud Columbian with a very heavy accent portraying an example of the “dominant archetypes of Latinas in Hollywood-as the spitfire, the clown, and the dark lady” (Ramirez Berg, 2002). Cooper and Riva escape in one of Riva’s cars and the antics begin…
The plot of the film is not new or original. There are corrupt cops, hired gunmen, car chases, drugs and the cartel. It filled with slapstick silliness and sexual references. After their car gets crashed by a truck, the pair persuade the truck driver for a ride to a local clothing shop to buy a new set of clothes. Cooper is no longer in uniform and Riva opts for a sexy tight short ripped t-shirt and jeans. (see picture above).
In one scene Cooper gets caught trying to steal a truck at gunpoint by the owner. Riva tries to run away, but changes her mind and returns to save Cooper by acting as Dr. Shannon, her lover. When the gunman threatens to call the police, Riva answers angerly, “This is racial profiling. I can’t be a doctor because I am Columbian?” (Hot Pursuit). She proceeds to hug, grope and kiss a startled Cooper, whispering, “Kiss me, kiss me. Men love this.” (Hot Pursuit). The gunman watches the pair with a male gaze until he subsequently shoots his finger off. The pair’s silly adventures en route to safety were too many to describe here.
I had high hopes for this film as it starred two strong women actors, one of them being Latina. In the end Riva turns out to be an intelligent mastermind with an agenda of her own, who was only playing the part of being clueless. While the “Latin explosion” in the U.S. media entertainment has contributed to increased representation of Latinas/os in popular communications, it should be noted that this moment also “deflects the social, demographic, and cultural realities of everyday life among U.S. Latinos and replaces what is socially real Latino with historically familiar, acceptable, and contained images of Latinos that the U.S. can integrate into its own logic” (Aparicio, 2003, p. 92). This is why films like Hot Pursuit are still made.
References
Aparicio, F. R. (2003). Jennifer as Selena: Rethinking Latinidad in media and popular culture. Latino Studies, I, 90-105.
Hot Pursuit. Directed by Anne Fletcher, Performances by Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2015.
Ramirez Berg, C. (2002) Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance. Austin: University of Texas Press.
I am sorry to hear that the film was not interesting. I understood the film showed stereotype of Latina’s unreal life. It used a sexy Latin character. As the author mentioned, the director still allow American’s prejudice Latina. I found the director Anne Fletcher is an American woman. So that she have not enough knowledge or did not care about the negative influence to Latin people.
While it is great to see Latinas in Major films, it is discouraging to see how they are portrayed and this film is a great example. I agree with you on how this type of script has been done. Not to mention how Sophia Vergara is always typecast to play “the stereotypical trophy wife, sexy and hot-headed”, Latina. Maybe Actresses like Sophia Vergara should do the same that Rita Moreno did and reject roles that stereotype Latin women in Film, television, and theater.
Hi Lucy,
This film was very disappointed to watch for me as well. Just like you, I was hopeful that it would be great because of the actresses. I found Vergara’s role very typical and expected because it seems that her Hollywood image relies on that consistency. I don’ t think that we are going to see a great departure to how the Latina woman is portrayed on the big screen because it is simply not marketable and that the subjective space that has been reserved for us, is what audiences pay money to watch, including Latina women. I think the Latina images we currently see in film, will continue to depict “the hot tamale” that Rita Moreno talked about in The Bronze Screen: 100 Years of the Latino Image documentary. It is an unfortunate and harsh true reality.
I had high hopes for this film as well, I really like movies with strong woman actors and I like the fact that she used her supposed dumbness as her strength. I remember watching thinking she was about to become big in Hollywood and break into latina films in a big way. Vergana is beautiful,smart and very talented. I like the choice f the side by side pictures on your blog.