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The breakup of a relationship is never easy. It comes with a flood of emotions and a whole lot of heartbreak. So in The Divorce Party, a young man decides that, instead of wallowing in the pain, he’ll work through it by throwing himself a wild party.
The Divorce Party stars Thomas Cocquerel as Nate, a twenty-something architect who met the woman of his dreams, Susan (Claire Holt), at a rental car agency in Savannah. Years later, their lives are a constant cycle of subdued dinner parties with their married suburban friends—until Susan decides that she’s entirely unhappy, and she throws Nate out. Suddenly lost and alone, Nate is absolutely miserable, attending a support group of equally miserable divorced men. But then divorced friend Katie (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) encourages him to throw a massive party to celebrate his new life.
The Divorce Party seems like it would make a fun romantic comedy about moving on and finding happiness—but, instead, it’s a dreary mess of clichéd characters.
Nothing here makes relationships look even slightly appealing. After all, all of the married men are weak and pathetic, dressed in drab, boring clothes for their bland dinner parties. They live in neat, orderly, cookie-cutter homes, where they sit on their tasteful sofas, discussing whether they should put in a pool. The married women, meanwhile, are all passive-aggressive manipulators, controlling what their husbands will eat, what they’ll wear, what they’ll do in their spare time, and how they’ll style their hair.
The only characters here who are interesting and happy are the single ones. Nate’s two single coworkers are the stylish ones—the ones who get to go out for drinks or go out to the game whenever they want, with whomever they want. And after her divorce, Katie goes from frumpy and miserable to bold and attractive. And, after a while, even single Nate decides to get some new clothes and a new haircut.
It seems as though the filmmakers are trying to tell viewers that marriage makes you weak and boring—or, if you’re a woman, mean and controlling. And unless you’re a single male Millennial, you’ll probably be distracted and frustrated by the film’s tone.
The Divorce Party seems to promise a fun-filled comedy about finding happiness—and maybe finding love in the process. Instead, it’s gloomy and rather mean-spirited: a maddening mess of bitterness and poorly-drawn clichés.
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