Oh, mothers...what they do for children, whether if it is loving or embarrassing, but in the end, they will still care about their young ones. While watching the trailer for this movie, I thought that this was excremental and needed to be doused with fire. Basically, this story is sort of the same premise as the 80s comedy, Back to School, where Rodney Dangerfield's character goes back to college to be in the same roof as his son as he had problems. Here, it is sort of the other way around where as Melissa McCarthy's character has the problems but can redeem herself by going back to school with her daughter. Director Ben Falcone and his wife, Melissa do not have a promising collaborative history with awful movies like Tammy (which almost made my worst list that year) and The Boss. This is their best but it is not saying much. So, they can relax by not entering the "worst of the year" party this year.
Deanna Miles (Melissa McCarthy) is with her husband, Dan (Matt Walsh), dropping off their daughter, Maddie (Molly Gordon), for her senior year at Decatur University. However, a bit later on, after Deanna states that she is excited for her trip to Italy with Dan, Dan says that he wants a divorce because he has fallen in love with another woman, Marcie (Julie Bowen). What is worse is that Dan is selling the home since it is under his name, making Deanna leave and take an Uber to her parents' house.
Deanna did not finish college because Dan and Deanna were in a relationship in college and that led to her being pregnant, causing her to drop out. So, after contemplating what she would do, Deanna surprises Maddie that she is going back to college at Decatur so she can graduate with a degree in archaeology. Maddie is stunned and is left speechless, however, she later introduces Deanna to her friends, Amanda (Adria Arjona), neurotic Debbie (Julian Ennis) and Helen (Gillian Jacobs), who was in a coma for eight years. But, Deanna gets into trouble to some bad girls and a few other people.
This movie is full of funny moments that could have belonged in a sketch that could have parodied the movie, Back to School. The movie starts atrociously with its set-up and the jokes that were in the bottom level of the pit that made me want to leave but then it redeems itself a bit with her character being likable compared to her last two characters in the last two movies with Ben Falcone.
It has sort of a fresh vibe in which McCarthy has a "relationship" with a fellow college student which produces some laughs and becomes a bit sweet. But, also, there are generic moments where I've seen countless of other college movies or other comedies. This has got to be the 10th movie recently that I have seen a dance-off in a comedy and I am getting a bit tired of it. Also, the bitter comedy, which again produces chuckles, in the divorce sub-plot where she tries to get back at her ex-husband.
Melissa McCarthy is winning in her role but if the script were fresher, it would have been a crowd-pleasing movie instead of a movie filled with familiar, generic moments that made me cringe. There is a scene during a wedding reception that felt like a home video of sorts. There are actually good performances from Gillian Jacobs, Maya Rudolph and Molly Gordon that has balance between humor and sentimentality that upped the movie a bit, compared to the couple's first two movies.
The movie, as a whole, did not work for me as the tone switches from being a winning movie to a predictable drag and it seemed that it did not know where to land in the end. I am hoping that McCarthy reunites with Paul Feig or a very good director to land some gold. For now, I am hoping that there is an intervention in which actors and producers can stop her from working with Falcone again. She is 0-for-3.
**
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