‘Party’ on with Melissa McCarthy
How does her new comedy rate? Review,
The college comedy is a frequent rite of passage for actors, from Rodney Dangerfield to Ryan Reynolds, with some some honest-to-goodness classics in those hallowed halls. But not so much Melissa McCarthy’s hopelessly derivative entry into the canon.
Life of the Party ( ★★☆☆; rated PG-13; in theaters nationwide Friday) finds McCarthy playing a divorced mom going back to school for an archaeology degree in a fleetingly funny movie that at least passes Bluto’s University Shenanigans 101. It borrows from Animal House, Back to School, Old School and other superior films, leaning less into crudeness and more into female-centric laughs, but offers some sweet moments and a few enjoyably zany characters.
Deanna (McCarthy) drops off daughter Maddie (Molly Gordon) for her senior year at Decatur University, but isn’t even out of the sorority house driveway before Dan (Matt Walsh), her heel of a husband, asks for a divorce. Having left Decatur decades back mere credits from graduating in order to start her family, Deanna decides to matriculate alongside her kid, who’s initially aghast but quickly (and surprisingly) is cool with it.
Directed by McCarthy’s husband, Ben Falcone — and co-written by the couple — Life of the Party goes through the fish-out-of-water motions with Deanna, contrasting her chirpy personality with a Goth roommate ( Saturday Night Live’s Heidi Gardner) and giving her a Millennial arch-enemy in a mean girl with serious vocal fry (Debby Ryan).
But Deanna turns from annoyingly school-spirited mom to confident middle-age vixen, and not even overnight. All it takes is some makeup, a hairbrush and a wardrobe change before Deanna is a new woman getting her party on and becoming the Mrs. Robinson for a very smitten frat guy named Jack (Luke Benward). From there, it’s a cavalcade of Harry Potter references, sciatica jokes and archaeology puns. (“Stand- ing-tomb only” is actually uttered.)
McCarthy is a talented comedian but, with the exception of Spy, her starring vehicles ( Tammy, The Boss) don’t come close to her ensemble projects ( Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters). She’s the prize point guard, the Magic Johnson if you will, who boosts her teammates: Life’s best scenes feature Deanna with Maddie and her oddball sisters like Helen (Gillian Jacobs), who entered college late because she was in a coma for eight years.
Campus-shindig set pieces and Deanna and Maddie’s awkward conversations about mom’s burgeoning sex life can’t hide the fact that the comedy can’t find its focus. Is it about Deanna rediscovering her identity or getting back at her husband and his highmaintenance new lover (Julie Bowen)? Or is it about a daughter dealing with jump-starting her mother’s social calendar? Or is it about a tight group of young women who find inspiration in this crazy yet wise older classmate? The film is all of these things to a degree, yet never satisfyingly so.
Rather than the resident A-lister, the freaky Greeks (plus a scene-stealing Maya Rudolph as Deanna’s wacky best friend) give the most life to this Party, which winds up having the hip factor of mom jeans.