A small group of attractive, self-consumed, privileged narcissists make the journey to an exotic vacation locale, where things quickly go sideways.
Sounds like “The White Lotus,” eh? On the surface, there are indeed similarities between Mike White’s smash hit series and director/co-writer Sarah Adina Smith’s feature-length cringe comedy “The Drop.” But whereas “Lotus” features tightly constructed, wryly clever writing and a bounty of intriguing characters with rich and layered storylines, “The Drop” has the feel of an extended improv exercise while spotlighting characters who are thinly sketched and often as boring as they are wickedly boorish, with the talented cast engaging in hit-and-miss dialogue that often falls flat. (Also, I’m not saying a sudden death or two would have spiced up this story, but I’m also not NOT saying that.)
Lex (Anna Konkle from “PEN15”) and Mani (Jermaine Fowler from “Coming 2 America”) are a young, married hipster couple who live in Los Angeles, operate an artisanal bakery, are trying very hard to get pregnant and speak to each other in such earnest terms, it’s as if their entire relationship is an extended therapy session. They’re so nice to one another, it’ll grind your teeth — and make you wonder if there aren’t some pretty serious problems bubbling just beneath the surface.
With their longtime friends and new parents Peggy (Jennifer Lafleur) and Mia (Aparna Nancherla) getting married, Lex and Mani join the happy couple and their baby on a flight to Puerto Vallarta for a destination wedding. Also on board that flight and paying for the first-class accommodations for everyone is another couple they’ve been friends with forever: Shauna (Robin Thede), a successful TV actress, and Shauna’s husband Robbie (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a showrunner and inveterate name-dropper, along with Shauna’s adopted teenage son Levi (Elisha Henig), a creepy kid who is watching 1990s porn on his smart device with the sound up on the plane. (“Levi is exploring,” explains Shauna, with Levi chiming in, “We’re a sex-positive family.” Great. You’re idiots.)
When the group arrives in Mexico, they’re welcomed by their old pals Lindsay (Jillian Bell) and Josh (Joshua Leonard), who own and operate a laid-back resort and will host the wedding. As everyone is reconnecting and basking in the sun-dappled moment, Robbie holds the baby, and then hands her to Lex, and it’s such a beautiful moment for Lex who hopes to have a child of her own in the very near future …
And then Lex drops the baby. Literally drops the baby. Ker. Plunk.
Spoiler alert: The little one will be OK, though she’s going to have to wear a protective helmet for the next few months — but that horrifying moment cuts Lex to the core and sends her into an emotional tailspin, while Mani wonders if he was ever dropped as a baby, while everyone keeps telling Lex it was an accident that could have happened to anyone, even as they reassure one another THEY would never drop a baby.
From this premise, which seems straight out of a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode, we move on to the weekend’s festivities, as we learn Lex has slept with about half the group; that motherhood has changed Mia’s outlook on life to the point where she is carrying a gun and has possibly become a Republican; and that Lindsay and Josh have grown to resent the hell out of one another as the resort is struggling and they’re actively seeking investors.
With an ominous score that sounds like something out of a horror movie, “The Drop” tries its best to lean hard into the dark satire, and there are some choice moments, e.g., when the insufferable Robbie cradles a supposedly special gourd and explains they’ll be handing it off to one another as they pay tribute to the happy couple: “All we’re going to ask of you is to pick up the Love Gourd here, which was gifted to me by Russell Brand in 2009 and once held the ashes of one of the women from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the popular tragedy of the mid-1920s.” (For the record: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which claimed the lives of 146 garment workers in Greenwich Village, New York, was on March 25, 1911. But it stands to reason this moron wouldn’t have the date right.)
OK, that’s pretty great, but far too often, the dialogue is more dour than snappy, as when Lindsay tells Lex, “Are you sure you’re actually wanting to have a baby? Because you know it’s like suicide. Well, you know, things you can’t undo in your life. Having a baby, committing suicide …” Thud.
One imagines the idea behind “The Drop” is to introduce us to a collection of characters who are thoroughly unlikable but great fun to watch. Alas, while they are indeed one odious bunch, they wear out their welcome long before we’re subjected to one last cheap joke and mercifully fading to black.
