Life Of The Party (dir. Ben Falcone)

The third outing between the married-duo Hollywood dynasty of writer/director Ben Falcone and comedy superstar Melissa McCarthy is a strange beast, as it's been a long time since I managed to find a broad comedy, with strong female characters and whole bunch of laughs, so enormously charming. Perhaps this is third time's the charm for the Falcone/McCarthy, who's previous efforts, "The Boss" and "Tammy" fell short of being humorous and actually veered off into being wholly annoying. Though there are plot holes more cacophonous than are lead actress' recognizable laugh, "Life of The Party" is unabashedly charming, sweet in places - and most importantly, down-right hilarious when it needs to be.

There's no denying that during the advertising campaign for "Life of the Party", I eschewed my basic "open-mind" mantra in favor for a "Oh ,not this film again" sensibility, as from the outset, this college-set sub-coming of age tale would appear to be yet another collection of misfiring gags from the McCarthy comedy staple, interspersed with long sections of disastrously unwatchable slapstick humour. On the contrary however, as our comedy duo are more interested this time around in the solidity of women as their main message, and the comedy set-pieces, although some of the don't work in the slightest, had me guffawing in unison with the audience against my better judgement.

McCarthy plays the goofy Mom, Deanna, who armed with her garish "PROUD MOM" unicorn jumper, accompanies her husband of 23 years Dan (Matt Walsh) with dropping of their precocious daughter Maddie (Molly Gordon) to her dorm to finish her final year of college. Hugs and kisses are exchanged and before long, Maddie is whisked off for yet another year of studies. Shortly after however, Matt brings the car to a screeching halt, and unceremoniously asks Deanna for a divorce, with his intentions being to shack up with his realtor Marcie (Julie Bowen). He sells their house in the meantime, and keeps all of the proceeds for himself. With nowhere to turn, Deanna decides to return to the one thing she gave up in order to become the "perfect wife" to Dan, and after some haphazard plot devices, decides to re-enroll herself at the same college, moving in to a dorm minutes away from her daughters sorority house.

Though during the opening 15-minutes, I found myself wincing at some of the broader character comedy, including a clearly improvised set piece in a racquetball court with Deanna and her best friend Christine (Maya Rudolph), when Deanna begins her new life on campus, the film removes itself from the undisciplined form of comedy seen in the filmamking team's previous work, to something much more rigorously nuanced. A perfect example of this, are the exchanges between Deanna and her daughter's sorority sisters: Helen (Gillian Jacobs), Amanda (Adria Arjona), Debbie (Jessie Ennis), which are heartfelt and charming, as Deanna becomes their muse; helping them their problems -from boyfriend trouble, to their dwindling self-confidence in a male orientated world. Every now and then, as is the college way, Deanna accompanies them to a frat party - garnishing laughs and adoration with her dance moves, and even gets intimate with college-hunk Jack ( Luke Benward) -with whom she later has a steamy dalliance with in a library.

Nothing much else happens in the interim, and the aforementioned missteps come dangerously close to smashing the whole ensemble into a melange of silliness (a sub-high school nemesis sub-plot with Disney channel superstar Debby Ryan doesn't work at all, nor does Deanna's fear of public speaking manifesting itself into a disintegrating set-piece in a classroom), yet when McCarthy is on top-form, much like in her efforts with Paul Feig, "Bridesmaids", "The Heat" and "Spy", she's effortlessly charming, and always worth the price of admission. A cameo from SNL-alum Chris Parnel, as Deann's Archeology professor, with whom she has a deliriously entertaining back-and-forth with garnered the most laughs, though Parnell is so watchable at times you wish he had more screen time. Yet, strong-female characters make up most of ensemble cast, who are well-written and interesting to watch, and much like McCarthy's form of clown-like comedy, I enjoyed spending time with them.

Rating 3/5.