When attempting to make a film about female camaraderie, nothing is more important than writing and portraying the unique aspects of friendships between a group of women with accuracy and authenticity. With her feature “My Divorce Party,” writer / director Heidi Weitzer evokes a sense of relatability through her story and characters, depicting a normal sisterhood of women that most audiences will either recognize or find in their own circle of friends, or wish they knew personally in their own lives.
Soon-to-be divorcee Xan (Desiree Staples) is meeting with her besties (Rumer Willis, Kimia Behpoornia, Michelle Meredith, Sarah Hollis)in the California desert to spend a few days letting loose. She’s assembled the gang in order to burn (literally) her divorce settlement as a symbolic gesture of starting anew. Not willing to watch cash go up in flames, each of her friends has their own strong opinion as to what she should do with the money instead of throwing it in the campfire. To calm the chaos, Xan comes up with the idea of splitting the money and giving each woman roughly $20,000 to spend as they wish, as long as it’s gone by the end of the weekend. They encounter a series of misadventures (not to mention their eccentric campground neighbors) over the next few days, but Xan’s friends also begin to suspect that she may not be telling them the entire truth.
The story is light on substance and feels stretched into a feature length film, and it could stand to lose a good twenty to thirty minutes of editing. The cast works hard, even if the majority of the performances feel strained. The puzzling sound design is distracting too, with slapstick sound effects that are out of place. The film is clunky, but it tries really, really hard. Weitzer is a competent director, and the pieces that stumble are balanced by genuinely fun moments that celebrate the power of friendship.
“My Divorce Party” offers a female perspective on the joy and pain that accompanies the thought of an unpredictable future. It’s a story of support, empowerment, and unbreakable bonds, a film that not only finds humor in life’s challenges, but reminds us of the importance of leaning on our friends when we need them the most.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 