Dinklage also makes for a hilarious rival, especially in a quick flashback to their hot-and-heavy past that plays up the absurdity of the giant Michelle making out with the diminutive tycoon. In fact, the movie's only weak spot comes from its final act, as it slows down a little too long while attempting to get emotionally grounded before going too far over the top in its overly frantic finale.
But with a winning denouement, "The Boss" regains its footing and gives its audience a healthy helping of hilarity that makes it easy to forgive its very infrequent missteps.
While all this may sound like an endless array of bad language and behavior, tone is crucial to this movie. It is impossible to take most of it seriously at all, which mitigates the language somewhat. The one truly offensive scene is relatively brief, when Michelle tries to convince a straight friend to distract a gay guard by performing oral sex on him; the suggestion is of course refused adamantly, but they use crude terminology while arguing about it.
Plus, the movie has several surprisingly strong positive elements, including a depiction of Michelle's childhood at the movie's opening. She is seen being adopted then rejected three different times in her childhood, and returned to a Catholic orphanage every time. The nun in charge of her is shown as sweet and sympathetic to her plight.
Secondly, while Michelle is bitter about families at the start of the movie due to her traumatic experiences, she comes to appreciate and love her assistant's young daughter as well as the assistant, and has a big change of heart that reflects a strong pro-family sentiment.
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Finally, and most importantly, the movie is very positive towards capitalism and entrepreneurship. Michelle's insider trading charges were a setup by her rival, and despite her abusive language and tactics around the kids, she teaches them to work hard and enjoy financial incentives for their hard work selling brownies. By the end of the movie, Michelle fully reforms her ways and even makes peace and forgiveness with her main rival.
Overall, this movie is recommended on an entertainment level, and for its core final messages, but with extreme caution for anyone who's highly offended by crude language. The real shame here is that the filmmakers had the makings of a terrific family movie, or at least could have kept it PG-13 for teens and adults, if they had just washed their mouths out and kept the same plot.
