THE BOSS (Rated R)

Comedy is tricky, at best, for even the funniest comedians.

The delightfully funny Melissa McCarthy has had her share of hits (“The Heat” and “Spy”) but also the occasional misses (“Tammy”), and thus she’s aware of the minefield in this business.

“The Boss,” a collaboration between McCarthy, her husband Ben Falcone and Steve Mallory for the script duties, is best categorized as a hit-and-miss comedy, even though much of it is a family affair as her husband also served as director and even has a bit part.

Reaching into her comedic bag of tricks from her formative days at the Los Angeles-based improv troupe The Groundlings, McCarthy has resurrected her tone-deaf, self-help finance guru Michelle Darnell as the titular, larger-than-life character in “The Boss.”

Aside from the opening scene flashbacks to her childhood days of being bounced around from foster home to foster home, with brief stints at a Catholic orphanage, Michelle blasted her way through life to get to the pinnacle of business success.

Described as the 47th wealthiest woman in America, Michelle Darnell is introduced at the top of her game, holding sold-out seminars in Chicago’s United Center, offering self-help career advice like someone trying to sell a course in house flipping.

As a confident, powerful woman wrapped in a cocoon of entitled wealth and privilege, Michelle is planted in the upper echelons of celebrity. She eschews the customary rules of civil engagement and operates without much regard for the status of others.

Meanwhile, her former lover and business competitor Renault (Peter Dinklage), operating in full vengeful mode, triggers her downfall by giving the feds all the ammunition needed for her indictment on insider trading, which is followed by a stint in federal prison.

Upon release from custody, the ruthless Michelle is prepared to resume her extravagant lifestyle until she has the rude awakening that she has nothing – no minions, no friends, no money and no assets.

In desperation, Michelle turns up at the apartment of her former executive assistant and struggling single mother Claire (Kristen Bell), seeking temporary refuge on her couch.

Living in cramped quarters with her young daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson), Claire is not thrilled that her former boss has insinuated herself into their lives for the dubious prospect of getting a fresh restart.

Working off a family recipe, Claire bakes brownies that are very popular with her colleagues at an exceedingly boring office workplace, where the only bright spot is the putative romance with co-worker Mike (Tyler Labine).

In true Darnell fashion, Michelle devises a shady business model for a new venture, a brownie empire guaranteed to catapult her back into the big leagues while giving Claire a real opportunity to build a solid future in the business world.

Some of the funniest situations involve Michelle’s natural instinct to fight dirty in a scorched Earth approach. As such, she creates Darnell’s Darlings, a brazen for-profit version of a revered scouting organization.

Michelle’s brainchild morphs into a motley crew of misfit girls peddling brownies made by Claire’s recipe. The girls are dressed in red berets and denim jackets, and looking like a revolutionary guard, they have all the attitude and swagger of the Black Panthers.

Not only do Michelle and her Darlings disrupt meetings of the Dandelions, a nonprofit girl’s organization selling cookies under the tutelage of the nice but flustered Scout Leader Sandy (Kristen Schaal), they are ready for a street brawl, which eventually happens.

Of course, the fight scene of the competing baked goods sellers is a bit violent and mean-spirited, with some markedly gratuitous swearing that for obvious reasons causes “The Boss” to deservedly earn its R rating for language, among other excesses.

“The Boss” also strikes a somewhat discordant note of sentimentality about family. For obvious reasons, Michelle is a despicable character, but the soft core of the story is that she seeks redemption by eventually bonding in a familial way with Claire and Rachel.

It may be satisfying that Melissa McCarthy gives her character enough heart, in her backstory as an unloved orphan and now as a reformed person, that she becomes more congenial, if not entirely lovable.

But the central point for “The Boss” is not whether McCarthy’s ribald Darnell proves to be likable after all; it’s about the goofiness of the once and future business honcho sustaining comedy gold in all facets of a loosely focused plot.

As I mentioned, “The Boss” is a hit-and-miss but still has a good share of laughs.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.