Drive Away Dolls review: Star-studded crime comedy struggles to make its chaotic road trip funny

Ethan Coen has spent decades helping create some of cinema’s most distinctive dark comedies, but his latest solo directing effort proves that an eccentric premise and an impressive collection of stars do not automatically produce the same magic.

Drive Away Dolls brings Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan together for an 84-minute road-trip crime comedy involving two unlikely friends, a mysterious suitcase and a group of criminals desperate to recover it.

Pedro Pascal, Matt Damon, Miley Cyrus and Beanie Feldstein also appear, giving the film an impressive collection of familiar faces.

Yet despite all that talent, the comedy struggles to land.

Two very different friends hit the road

Set in 1999, the story revolves around Jamie and Marian, two friends whose romantic lives could hardly be more different.

Jamie, played by Margaret Qualley, is outgoing, impulsive and repeatedly unfaithful in her relationships.

Her behaviour finally catches up with her when her police officer girlfriend Suki, played by Beanie Feldstein, throws her out after discovering she has slept with somebody else in their home.

Geraldine Viswanathan’s Marian is almost Jamie’s complete opposite.

Reserved, perpetually single and considerably more uptight, she is presented as someone uncomfortable with the uninhibited lifestyle embraced by her friend.

Both women eventually decide that they need a change.

Their solution is to rent a car and head towards Tallahassee, hoping the journey can offer something of a fresh start.

Unfortunately, they drive away with far more than they expected.

One suitcase turns their trip into a criminal chase

The hired vehicle contains a highly valuable suitcase that a group of dangerous criminals desperately wants returned.

Jamie and Marian have no idea what they have stumbled into.

Their road trip consequently becomes a cross-country chase as hitmen pursue them while the pair continue stumbling through increasingly bizarre situations.

On paper, the ingredients appear well suited to an eccentric crime comedy: mismatched friends, criminals, a mysterious object and a road trip spiralling completely out of control.

The problem is that the central characters are written so broadly that their differences begin to feel repetitive rather than genuinely revealing.

Jamie is consistently presented as flamboyant and driven by her sexual appetite, while Marian occupies the opposite extreme as the buttoned-up friend who disapproves of almost everything around her.

Qualley and Viswanathan are capable performers, but the screenplay gives them characters that rarely move far beyond those defining traits.

As a result, the friendship at the centre of the film never feels as convincing as it needs to.

A huge supporting cast is given surprisingly little to do

Drive Away Dolls also boasts the kind of supporting cast that would normally generate considerable excitement.

Pedro Pascal, Matt Damon and Miley Cyrus all appear.

Yet their presence ultimately becomes another missed opportunity.

Rather than giving those recognisable performers substantial material, the film largely restricts them to brief appearances.

Beanie Feldstein fares better as Suki.

Her aggressive police officer becomes one of the more entertaining supporting characters, delivering a cameo with enough energy to stand out among the film’s increasingly chaotic detours.

But even those moments cannot completely compensate for comedy that repeatedly pushes for laughs without consistently earning them.

Ethan Coen goes solo

The film also arrives with considerable expectations because of the filmmaker behind it.

Ethan Coen is best known as one half of the Coen brothers, whose work has long blended crime, eccentric characters and dark humour.

Drive Away Dolls uses several ingredients that would seem perfectly suited to that tradition.

There are incompetent criminals, unlikely protagonists, an escalating chase and a deliberately absurd tone.

But here, the combination feels far less effective.

Instead of building naturally from its strange characters and increasingly complicated situation, many of the jokes feel overly forced.

The result is a movie constantly signalling how outrageous and funny it wants to be without consistently delivering the laughs.

A road trip that never quite reaches its destination

There is nothing wrong with the basic idea behind Drive Away Dolls.

A mismatched pair accidentally taking something valuable and being pursued across America could easily provide the foundation for a sharp, fast-moving comedy.

Qualley and Viswanathan also bring enough talent and energy to suggest a stronger version of this story was possible.

But the exaggerated characterisation, underused supporting stars and humour that too often misses its target leave the film feeling strangely dated.

For a movie built around two women desperately looking for a change of scenery, the biggest problem is that viewers may find themselves wanting an escape of their own long before the road trip reaches its destination.