Would you entertain a relationship with a woman who referred to her lady parts as her “vagoogle?” For that matter, would you entertain a relationship with a woman who referred to her lady parts as “lady parts?” Following a surprise divorce, fortysomething mother Deanna (Melissa McCarthy) decides to re-up in college to finish her long lost degree and help her undergraduate son make the diving team. Wait, that last part was Back to School starring Rodney Dangerfield.
A top-10 candidate for worst-researched film of the year, Life of the Party caught my guffaw early when Deanna and Dan (Matt Walsh) drop off their daughter Maddie (Molly Gordon) and complain about the $28,000 yearly tuition. HA! I’d love to know where you go to school; half the private colleges I know charge that for a semester. No matter, that’s the most realistic note this film will take. Before leaving the sorority house driveway, Dan asks Deanna for a divorce, citing the he’s having an affair with his real estate agent. Ah, and I see this is that rare state in the union where the marriage proceeds and house are given 100% to the cheating party leaving the real estate agent in charge of the alimony settlement as well. Law sure has changed in this country.
Left without a life or a roof, Deanna decides to re-enroll in college to earn the archaeology degree she never finished. Sure, the semester already started before she gave the university any notice of her intentions, but why let an opening and dorm assignment go to a wait-listed student when a random parent wants in? Why should this prove awkward for anyone, least of all Deanna or her daughter Maddie? Let the matriculation of Melissa McCarthy commence! What’s that? You.are.seriously going to attend college without a laptop or personal computer of any kind? Um, sure, that will work … as long as you’re going to school in 1982.
That all said, this film really could have been much, much worse. Don’t get me wrong, there are a handful of terrible scenes in Life of the Party. The first involves Deanna’s father (Stephen Root) punctuating the divorce announcement by grabbing a gun, threatening Dan, and almost shooting the dog. Ladies
and gentlemen, we are now well beyond the point in American history when gun abuse –and especially speculative homicide- is acceptable comic fodder. Most of the film isn’t like that, however. The majority of scenes involve a bubbly Melissa McCarthy showing up and getting excited about being young, energetic, and lustful. Life of the Party has all the feel of a Will Ferrell film with McCarthy in the role of Ferrell; it is silly and unrealistic, but said concerns are easy to dismiss with a lead who is totally in character and positive at all times. Personally, I think Ms. McCarthy passed for college no better than the White Chicks passed for white, but that didn’t ever stop me from rooting for her. Getting a decent protagonist is at the heart of almost every film ever made.
Goodness knows, a revisitation of Back to School every year is a supremely bad idea, but why not let a random screenplay or two give it a shot? If it can help conversations that involve letting the general public know how screwed today’s youth are economically or even breakdown some of the ugly generational warfare out there, maybe this is a good idea. Of course, Life of the Party will aid no such discussions, but it can be enjoyed by parents trying to relate to their college-age students, divorcees who got the shaft, and cougars who have always wanted a heaping slice of collegiate man pie. Just ask vagoogle; she knows.
When your spouse resembles Simon Legree
It’s time for retaliation, agree?
To take down your ex
And the home that he wrecks
Try college in the first degree
Rated PG-13, 105 Minutes
Director: Ben Falcone
Writer: Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy
Genre: Mid-life crisis
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Divorced women
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Reality-based souls
