Life of the Party Review: Melissa McCarthys Back-to-School Comedys a Buzzkill

Looking for something fun to take mom to for Mothers Day? Do your Mom (and yourself) a favor and steer clear of Life of the Party. Melissa McCarthy is comedy royalty its a scientific fact, look it up but even the Bridesmaids star cant keep this mom-goes-to-college fluffball from flatlining.

McCarthy plays Deanna, a newly divorced housewife who enrolls at Decatur University to study archaeology. Right from the starting gate, the comedian feels harnessed by a plot that asks us to pity this woman because her jerk husband (Veeps Matt Walsh) has dumped her for another woman (Modern Familys Julie Bowen). Complications arise because Deannas daughter Maddie (Molly Gordon) is a senior at the same school. How can the kid not be horrified and humiliated that her mom will be around delivering snacks and mother-henning all over the place? Before you ask, Say, doesnt this sound like Rodney Dangerfields 1986 Back to School with a sex charge, let us assure folks that Life of the Party is not even remotely in the same hilarious league. It has PG-13 marshmallows where its metaphorical balls should be.

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McCarthy falls into the same trap she did in Tammy and The Boss, the two other movies she wrote with her husband/director Ben Falcone. By that we mean she allows her laugh instincts to get buried in a blanket of bland. Its not a conincidence that the three best McCarthy screen vehicles so far Spy, The Heat and Bridesmaids, for which she was Oscar nominatedwere all directed by Paul Feig, a filmmaker who knows how to showcase her genuine gift for blending brash with bubbly charm.

Of
course, no movie with McCarthy can be a total loss, and Life of the Party has
its moments once the script stops making easy jokes about fish-outta-water cluelessness and lets McCarthy mix it up with a terrific-if-overqualified
supporting cast. SNLs Heidi Gardner excels as Deannas goth roommate; Gillian
Jacobs is a hoot as an adult student who
returns to school after eight years in a coma (dont ask); and Maya Rudolph, as
Deannas off-campus best friend, makes a perfect McCarthy sparring partner.

Its also a
welcome departure from abundance of college-mom clichs that
mother and daughter learn to co-exist, and that Deannas thing with a
wine-loving, student hunk (a terrific Luke Benward) packs a surprising
sweetness. The rest, from a 1980s dance party (oh, those