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Melissa McCarthy stars in Life of the Party.Hopper Stone SMPSP/Warner Bros. Pictures

  • Life of the Party
  • Directed by: Ben Falcone
  • Written by: Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy
  • Starring: Melissa McCarthy
  • Classification: PG; 105 minutes

Rating:

2 out of 4 stars

More than once in the safe Hollywood comedy Life of the Party, star Melissa McCarthy proclaims she is “down to clown.” And isn’t that the truth. A truly gifted comedic actress, McCarthy is wasting her talents with this vanilla-flavoured story about a soon-to-be divorced mom heading back to university, where she shares friends with her undergrad daughter and seamlessly becomes what the film’s title says she is. Another comedy from McCarthy’s writer-director husband Ben Falcone, Life of the Party gets nothing more than a satisfactory grade. Funny-enough scenes move more or less randomly along, as a midlife crisis-ing mom transitions from frumpy to cool, while winning over the sorority set with her admirable unsinkability. She does tequila. She beds a boy. She aces her studies. The film’s mild source of tension (involving financial stress) is wonky and flies in the face of modern divorce laws. Mom needs a better lawyer; McCarthy needs a better agent. Shouldn’t she have graduated by now?

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