LIFE OF THE PARTY – Review

LIFE OF THE PARTY is a big fat drag of a movie – poorly paced and terribly written. Star Melissa McCarthy, no matter how much she throws herself into it with her usual crackling, live-wire energy, can’t come close to saving it. McCarthy stars as Deanna, a longtime dedicated housewife who, along with her husband Dan (Matt Walsh) is introduced dropping her daughter Maddie (Mollie Gordon) off at Decatur University for her senior year. On the drive home Dan informs Deanna that he’s in love with Marcie (Julie Bowen) and wants a divorce. Turning her “regret into re-set”, she herself enrolls in Decatur, where she had dropped out of 24 years earlier when she was pregnant, to finish her degree in Archaeology. There she embraces freedom, fun, and frat boys on her own terms, finds her true self and becomes the life of the party.

LIFE OF THE PARTY is a comedy. I know this because I looked it up on the IMDB and it says ‘Comedy’ right there between ‘PG13’ and ‘1h 45min’. It does have that fish-out-of-water premise you often see in comedies and the cast mugs, rolls their eyes, and loudly deliver their lines as if they’re participating in some sort of comedic exercise. There are no laugh-at-the-fat-gal gags this time but there are a couple of kicks to the groin (but they’re female groins) and middle-age adults hornier than their college-age kids. But LIFE OF THE PARTY is comedy flatline – there’s not a single amusing moment in it. The screenplay is by McCarthy and her husband and director Ben Falcone, whose previous collaborations (TAMMY, THE BOSS) have been terrible as well (I hope their kids turn out okay!). The neutered, PG13 script feels like a type of first draft with sketchy, underdeveloped characters. There’s a pair of one-note mean girls who pop up a few times just to be cruel for no discernable reason. At a party, Deanna sleeps with Jack (Luke Benward) a hunky frat boy who inexplicably declares his undying love for her the next day at the library (where they screw again).  Why is Jack, with his male-model looks, attracted to Deanna when he could likely have any girl on campus? The script never attempts to explain but his real purpose is to set up the crazy twist that …..(spoiler alert)… he’s Marcie’s son! Chris Parnell shows up as a teacher Deanna recognizes as a classmate from her earlier college days, setting up an obvious love interest for her but the script forgets to go there and he’s never once shown outside the classroom. Jackie Weaver and Stephen Root as Deanna’s parents seem embarrassed to be involved in this mess. The one character with comic potential is Deanna’s dorm roommate Leonor (Heidi Gardner), a mumbling spook who won’t leave their room because she’s afraid of everything (even ketchup!), but she’s abandoned halfway through only to reappear near the end in a desperate scene with Christina Aguilera as herself (cue lame musical number). In the film’s floundering search for a single laugh, the wackiness is upped to desperate levels in the hope that something – anything – might stick, so we get filler like the musical montage (of Dee buying University swag), the ‘middle-aged mom getting high on pot and trashing her ex-husband’s wedding’ scene (actually she eats ‘’weed bark’  – which I’ve never heard of), and one overlong, painfully unfunny scene in which Deanna has a breakdown delivering a live report in front of her class. LIFE OF THE PARTY is a cynical, laugh-free Mother’s Day cash grab. This Sunday, take mom to brunch instead.

1/2 of 1 Star Out of 5