Written and directed by Sarah Adina Smith, co-written by Joshua Leonard, a married couple face a marriage test when one of them drops a baby during a tropical island wedding. Starring: Jermaine Fowler, Anna Konkle, Robin Thede, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Aparna Nancherla, Jennifer Lafleur, Elisha Henig, Joshua Leonard, Jillian Bell and Susan Sullivan.
When a film’s entire premise is set around someone dropping a baby, you pretty much know what you’re getting. It’s a cringe comedy and it really leans into the awkward and uncomfortable journey that you’re anticipating. However, hitting that cringeworthy note comes with a surprising level of difficulty to pull off. You’d think it would be easy but it’s hard to do well, easy to do poorly and unfortunately The Drop is in the camp of the latter. There just isn’t a strong enough, or consistent enough, sense of humour to see this one through. The main issue being that it doesn’t feel as though it can decide on what it wants to be.
It hits those cringe notes with a lot of unnecessary sexuality and purposeful clumsiness, which will work for some and not others. Outside of that, it’s trying to bring through a darker touch, or even at times going for something eccentric and strange, none of which really meld with the rest of the film. They have potential and if that oddity and dark comedy had taken over, the film could have likely been a whole different beast but as it stands, it doesn’t have the confidence to pull it off. There’s also that slightly overwhelming feel of selfishness, each character is very much focused on themselves, which misses out on the connection and team vibe you want from an ensemble comedy.
Especially when you consider the cast that’s at work, there’s some strong comedy veins running through it that don’t get to bring their best to the table. The performances are all fine but it feels as though Aparna Nancherla and Jillian Bell are the only ones who hit the right note. They perfectly capture that balance of black comedy, cringe and silliness, which is something they’ve both been doing for years.
Although another key issue that the film has is that there is absolutely zero chemistry between The Drop’s leading couple, played by Jermaine Fowler and Anna Konkle. Considering the performances separately, they’re nothing special but they work, as a couple? It’s a giant mess and makes no sense. When they’re working as the centre of this film, it already sets things out on weak footing and sadly, that doesn’t improve as time goes on.
The Drop struggles to land on the right tone, it’s moving around all over the place, trying different things and never settles in. It’s a decent ensemble and Aparna Nancherla and Jillian Bell come out the strongest but the script isn’t giving any of them enough to work with to truly justify their comedic talents. The film simply never finds its rhythm, the atmosphere is off, the tone is messy, the comedy is inconsistent and there isn’t much of a story beneath it to hold the pieces together.
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