HAVING thrown her husband out for committing online adultery, Amy (Mila Kunis), whose life since marriage and pregnant at age 20 revolves around an overworked, under-paid job, housekeeping, caring for two children and having not enough sex, decides she’s finished with conformity and wants to have fun.

In a bar, Amy meets Karla (Kathryn Hahn) who sets her on the path toward the good life. Then the pair meet oppressed mother-of-five Kiki (Kristen Bell). This trio forms the foundation for a movie equal to the best of bad American movies, a disconnected satire that tries to lampoon family values and behaviours in middle America.

Alas, the caricatures and situations created by co-writers/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore don’t match that worthy objective. Low credibility makes the film less funny ha-ha than it might have been. And by trying unsuccessfully to take its humour seriously (a not impossible task for skilled writers) it fails to be funny peculiar.

It doesn’t totally lack redeeming features. Kathryn Hahn is a blast, playing a visibly spectacular, pan-sexual play-girl. It has occasional one-liners that bite. And its vocabulary goes some distance toward liberating women from the strictures of “nice” without contributing much to plot.

As PTA president Gwendolyn, Christina Applegate is a fine villain, dominating every extracurricular activity on the school’s program, bullying parents, staff and children with sweetly venomous skill. We yearn to see her get a vigorous come-uppance. But no, it comes softly and compassionately. It falls to Amy to bring her down at the meeting to elect a new president with a policy speech that has the substance of marshmallow.

A coda of off-set interviews with the real-life moms of the principal actresses does little to assuage the film’s flabbiness.

At all cinemas