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Partners
What it's about:
Four moms whose only common ground is their kids’ preschool class decide to get together for a harmless “fun mom dinner.” The night starts off terribly, but the combination of alcohol, karaoke, and a cute bartender leads to an unforgettable night where these seemingly different women realise that they have a lot more in common than motherhood and men.
What we thought:
There are quite a few movies about a fun and zany night out that have hit the circuit lately, like my personal favourite, Girls Trip, the slightly darker Rough Night Out, and the raunchy hit, Bad Moms.
However, not all of these comedies are made equal. Some are definitely better than others and then of course there’s the worst of the bunch, and this movie might be the latter. It has a stellar cast (Toni Collette; Molly Shannon), a great director (Alethea Jones), and a decent writer (Julie Rudd) but they all don’t seem to work together to make a cohesive and funny film.
There are some funny moments but they are so far and few between that when they did happen I felt like I had to write them down to keep track. There were just over 10, if I am being generous. I think the real thing that this flick was missing was a great comedian to provide the big laughs, like a real old school Falstaff, like Tiffany Haddish in Girls Trip or Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids. Bridget Everett tries to provide that comic relief but her lines seem to fall flat for some reason, and her character’s backstory was the only one of the main characters’ which wasn’t fully fleshed out.
I walked away completely unsure of who her character was except for someone who had military knowledge and a love for rules. The other characters got a lot more context, and two of the husbands got way more screen time than I feel like they should have. The movie isn’t called “Dads try childcare one night”.
I also think this movie got the balance wrong between the tender moments and fun slapstick humour. I understand that there’s a need to have both in today’s comedy genre but too much of the dry with none of the zany is a recipe for a boring film. While it’s really important to have moments with real character development and relatable anecdotes, I think this flick puts too much emphasis on that and loses the audience halfway through with a slow meander to an average end.
I think that this is the type of movie you wait to come on TV one night and then watch it in the background while you do other things. It is definitely not something that I would recommend spending money on. If you’re really a big fan of laughing at parents who need a break from their lives, rather rent any other movies mentioned in this article, or even Sisters. And if you really want to see Toni Collette shine, like she tries to do in this not-so-great film, then check out the United States of Tara which Diablo Cody masterminded.
