Playing off the name of the infamously cannibalistic Donner Party, The Donor Party is a new comedy film that manages to combine a certain sweetness with utter raunchiness. Putting the 'come' in 'comedy,' the film finds a woman taking charge of her future in order to have a child and be the mother she couldn't with her cheating ex. In order to do so, she and he friends arrange a bit of sexual subterfuge at a party, hopinh to find the right sperm donor. The synopsis reads as follows:
From writer-director Thom Harp, The Donor Party follows recently single Jaclyn (Malin Åkerman), who desperately wants to become a mom — by any means necessary. After a messy divorce and countless wasted online dating attempts, she realizes she doesn’t need a husband to make her dream come true. Enlisting her best friends (Erinn Hayes and Bria Henderson), Jaclyn devises a plan to pull off the ultimate sperm heist on unsuspecting donors Tim (Jerry O’Connell), MJ (Dan Ahdoot), Mateo (Jeff Torres) and Armin (Ryan Hansen), all while celebrating an intimate birthday party for her oblivious friend, Geoff (Rob Corddry).
You can catch the trailer below.
The Donor Party Reunites Comedy Greats
If some of the faces in The Donor Party seem familiar, that's because the film features an ensemble cast of extremely funny character actors, many of whom had worked together on the legendary absurdist sitcom Children's Hospital and the recently revived Party Down. Aside from the aforementioned stars, the film also includes Patty Guggenheim (Madisynn King in She-Hulk), Cedric Yarbrough (Reno 911), Beth Dover (Orange Is the New Black), and Jon Daly (Kroll Show), who are all consistently hilarious in everything they do.
Åkerman remains one of the more underrated comedic actresses of her generation. While she's perhaps most famous for Watchmen, she has quietly given some of the funniest performances in a litany of rom-coms (27 Dresses, The Proposal, Couples Retreat) and great TV comedies (Children's Hospital, Trophy Wife). In The Donor Party, she's given free rein to interact with a variety of different character types, playing a woman who knows what she wants and doesn't care about the societal perception over how it looks. She seems to be the exact kind of confident, comedic actress who can lead a modern sex comedy like this. The Donor Party, like its protagonist, is bold and subversive in its aims, transgressing what women in traditional rom-coms are supposed to do and how they're supposed to behave.
In the exclusive clip below, you can see Åkerman interacting with her Friendsgiving co-star, Ryan Hansen, in The Donor Party. The pair have a flirtatious yet candid conversation about sex and exes, masking melancholy with sarcastic barbs and subtle asides.
Vertical Entertainment will release The Donor Party from Indy Entertainment and Buffalo 8 Productions, in association with BondIt Media Capital and LB Entertainment, in theaters and On Demand on March 3.