Hot Pursuit

Those fussing about the lack of strong-minded, independent roles for women in Hollywood should probably stay far away from Hot Pursuit, a misguided road-trip comedy about an airheaded blonde and a cleavage-bearing Latina on the lam through Texas.

They’re played by Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara — two actresses who deserve better at this stage of their respective careers. And it’s directed by Anne Fletcher (The Guilt Trip), who might have — like her two stars — been having so much fun with the on-set shenanigans that she became blinded to the way in which the film perpetuates lazy stereotypes.

That wouldn’t be so bad if the film was, you know, funnier. Witherspoon exaggerates her accent to play Cooper, a straitlaced San Antonio cop given her first big assignment by helping to transport a drug dealer and his wife to Dallas, where they are set to testify against a cartel boss. However, the operation winds up in a shootout, with the drug dealer and Cooper’s partner each getting killed.

Cooper and the gold-digging widow, Daniella (Vergara), are left to head for Dallas on their own, with Cooper quickly wearing down her passenger with her overbearing by-the-book style that allows her to commandeer a variety of vehicles along the way. Daniella, meanwhile, clings to a suitcase of fancy heels that might conceal a secret. And naturally they become a target of both corrupt cops and henchmen from south of the border.

It’s difficult to warm up to either of these women or care about their fate. Cooper is impossibly naive and Daniella is shrill and superficial, and their constant bickering grows is more tiresome than endearing.

The uninspired screenplay by sitcom veterans David Feeney and John Quaintance is a mixed bag when it comes to Texas clichés. It accurately captures the road construction and rifle-toting hicks with pickup trucks, yet ignores the fact that there are no Indian casinos. Although there are some scattered amusing one-liners, they can’t compensate for the vast majority of crude and labored gags that dominate the slapstick proceedings.

The film apparently wants to ride the female buddy-comedy coattails of The Heat, yet doesn’t capture the same odd-couple dynamics as Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. Instead, like its main character, Hot Pursuit is bumbling and awkward and winds up at a dead end.

Rated PG-13, 87 minutes.