Summary
The Drop ultimately flops because it’s a comedy without enough humor. The setup is interesting, but the characters are annoying.
This review of the Hulu film The Drop does not contain spoilers.
Comedies are more difficult to pull off than most people give them credit for. Because humor is so subjective, what works for one person often may not work for another. This means that Hulu‘s line of comedy films has always been a gamble, but they continue to make them. Unfortunately, The Drop is ultimately a flop with an interesting premise but poor execution. Directed by Sarah Adina Smith, the Hulu original features a large cast on a tropical getaway to celebrate their friends’ wedding.
The Drop review and plot summary
Lex (Anna Konkle) and Mani (Jermaine Fowler) are a married couple looking forward to starting their own family, with the encouragement of both of their mothers. They’re dreading attending the wedding of their friends, Peggy (Jennifer Lafleur) and Mia (Aparna Nancherla), especially because Lex is making their cake and writing their vows for them. They fly to the tropical destination for the wedding with their friends Shauna (Robin Thede), a self-absorbed television actress, her grating husband Robbie (Utkarsh Ambudkar), and their horny teenage son Levi (Elisha Henig).
Once at the location, they reunite with their hippie friends Josh (Joshua Leonard, who is also the co-writer) and Lindsey (Jillian Bell), the owners of the Mexican beachfront resort that they are hoping to convince the others to invest in. As a group, the friends are even more annoying than they are individually. The key to having an unlikable crew of characters is for them to still be fun to watch, like in last year’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, but this film takes cringe-comedy to an extreme.
While everyone is getting loaded into the van to go to the resort, Mani and Lex are handed Peggy and Mia’s baby Ani to hold. But, while distracted by a bee, Lex drops the infant onto the concrete. It’s an interesting premise as the couple has to grapple with what Lex’s ineptitude with a baby means for their hopes to start a family. However, the improvisational, absurdist small plot lines with the other characters only feel like they’re detracting from the rest of the movie.
The Drop is, at times, vulgar for the sake of it and also contains some scenes that can only be described as strange. And if it were made in an artful way, it might be more excusable, but the film-making is nothing more than serviceable. The one truly clever part is the placement of the film’s title card.
Is The Drop good?
Despite its interesting premise and the general popularity of comedies set at destination weddings (like Palm Springs), The Drop ultimately is more grating than entertaining. The actors do their best to salvage it, but the lack of humor and the fact that it feels slow-moving despite its 90-minute runtime tank the film.
What did you think of The Drop? Comment below.
You can watch this film with a subscription to Hulu.
