When we meet Deanna, she’s a half-permed, half-blow-dried, bespectacled, appliqué-sweatered mom holding back tears at saying goodbye to her daughter Maddie (Molly Gordon, TNT’s “Animal Kingdom”) as she and impatient hubby Dan (Matt Walsh) drop their kid off at college. But the lingering effect is, “What exactly was that?” And not in a good way. To reference a college staple, this is McCarthy as everything punch, and as deliriously on as she can be. Watch Video: Melissa McCarthy Heads Back to College in 'Life of the Party' Trailer Whatever “Life of the Party” needs its star to be, it gives us - frumpy, hot, weird, normal, kind, mean, humiliated, heroic, limber, uncoordinated, sexy, unsexy - in the desperate hope that you’ll latch on to some nugget of McCarthy-patented brazenness and you’ll laugh, as if story and cohesion meant nothing.
LIFE OF THE PARTY MOVIE
What that means for “Life of the Party” is, it doesn’t matter that the McCarthy at the beginning of the movie and the McCarthy at the end feel like two of at least seven different versions of housewife-turned-student Deanna Myles in this undercooked story. (That usually starts with a halfway decent script.) Falcone, on the other hand, clearly adores his wife, but thinks just turning on the camera is all his genius, wind-up spouse needs.
LIFE OF THE PARTY HOW TO
It’s become all too apparent that of the two directors who have worked with McCarthy the most since her “Bridesmaids” breakthrough - that film’s director, Paul Feig (“The Heat,” “Spy,” “Ghostbusters”) and McCarthy’s husband Ben Falcone (“Tammy,” “The Boss,” and now “Life of the Party”) - it’s Feig who recognizes her strengths, who understands how to let her elevate material and bounce off the people and situations around her.
Melissa McCarthy may be a crown jewel in today’s comedy realm, but she’s not doing her audacious shine any favors with “Life of the Party,” a slapdash back-to-college vehicle that leaves her formidable gifts floundering.
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