You don't typically hear of many normal people go back to college to get their degree. The movie, Life of the Party, directed by Ben Falcone is an onscreen comedy that features Melissa McCarthy as Deanna Miles who dropped out of her last year of college due to pregnancy.
The movie starts off with Deanna and her husband Dan (Matt Walsh) dropping off their daughter, Maddie's college. After saying their goodbyes and getting in the car, Dan surprises Deanna with news of him wanting a divorce due to him falling in love with another woman. After this Deanna takes an uber home instead of driving with Dan. When she gets home, she is surprised with more news, that Dan is selling the house because it's under his name. She ends up taking everything that Dan owns out of the house and burns it. The next week she goes to play tennis with her best friend, Christine (Maya Rudolph) ranting about how Dan has made her life a mess. She then has an epiphany and tells Christine she won't let Dan ruin it anymore and decides something major.
Deanna goes to visit Maddie to tell her about the news of divorce and something else. After the divorce conversation, Deanna tells Maddie that she is going to finish her last year of college and pursue her career in archaeology. The biggest news of it all is that she will go to the same college as her daughter.
Deanna is introduced to Maddie's friends and is taken to a party to get to know her classmates. The resident mean girl, Jennifer (Debbie Ryan) bullies the mother on how she is at the college partying hard like a young college girl. Maddie then goes to the bathroom and gives her mom a makeover. Deanna gets to be known as "Dee-rock" among Maddie's friends and becomes, if I may, the life of the party throughout the rest of the movie. She ends up sleeping with another college student, who happens to be Dan's fiance.
Among her party lifestyle, she earns her degree in the intended subject.
One struggle Deanna is faced with is the fact that her ex-husband is now with another woman and that they are engaged to be married. Towards the end of the movie, Dee-rock does drugs with Maddie's friends and goes to Dan's wedding and destroys the reception area.
This American comedy was great, to be honest. I found it charming, sympathetic and hilarious. Even though this mother had grown into a smart, independent woman, Deanna dramatically grows and gains more independence during Maddie and her's final year of college. I think for most people, they find the mother going out and partying like a college girl shocking because mothers are supposed to say no to partying and discipline their child if they go out drinking, but that is not the case. Deanna takes care of herself and lets her daughter do her own thing while she does her own. There was this one scene where Deanna has sex in the stacks (library) and tells her neurotic best friend, Christine Davenport, who ends up laughing at the situation because most mothers wouldn't do that.
The overall concept of this movie has a great meaning, however, it fell short of success. Melissa McCarthy usually does great, but this movie felt cheesy and it is not relatable. The reason behind not being relatable is because most woman who gets a divorce wouldn't burn their ex's items. Also, cheesy moments such as the daughter getting mad at the mom for trashing the dads wedding, then the mom telling the daughter that she isn't coming back to college.
Overall, the movie was a good-bad on a be reel scale. The idea of a mom who hit rock bottom to getting her degree to become successful was great, but the execution of the final product was sub par due to the cheesiness and is not relatable.
Some movies that feature Melissa McCarthy that are very good are:
Spy
The Heat
Identity Thief
Tammy
The Boss
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