Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Terry Crews
Rose Byrne
Directed By:
Paul Feig
Caught in another social situation were we had to figure out a movie that would please four people at the same time, Josie mercifully proposed that we watch BRIDESMAIDS, which has been hailed as the female version of THE HUNGOVER, a cult-comedy that's been growing on me with every viewing I gave it (so far, three). A movie with no famous leads is always something tricky to market, but since BRIDESMAIDS had such a huge publicity campaign behind it, I had a hunch it would be a good comedy, in the "lewd-and-crude" sense of the term. It's been written by one of the lead Kristen Wiig, who's voice is more known than her face (she worked many animation movie in the last years), which is another telltale sign of quality. Hollywood has so many empty script written by hired muscle asked to fill name slots and gaps in the dialog, in a story imagined by a studio executive. Whenever a script is written by an actual artist, it stands out as being exceptionally good, because it's a labor of love. BRIDESMAIDS isn't award winning cinema, but it's a good time for everybody who's not easily offended.
Annie (Wiig) is a woman in her thirties, recoiling from a reckless business move that turned out to be a tremendous failure. She's broke, single, sharing an apartment with weirdos. All she has is her childhood friend Lilian (Maya Rudolph) who is soon getting married. Looking to bury her feelings, she throws herself body and soul into her bridesmaid role and into the organization of a memorable bachelorette party. Unfortunately for her, she has to face off with Lilian's new friend, trophy-wife Helen (Rose Byrne) who is rich and bored, so she has nothing better to do than compete with Annie for the bragging rights to be chief organizer or the bachelorette party and the privilege to be Lilian's best friend. Oh and looming around the corner is that mysterious and nice police officer Rhoades (Chris O'Dowd) who looks way too nice to be real. So Annie has to balance this new addition to her life and try not to fuck it up and end up alone again.
Right away, BRIDESMAIDS touches a subject I like. What happens when the happy ever after ends up being a bankruptcy, loneliness and alienation. What happens then? Well, a lot of wacky stuff for sure. Being a "girl" movie, BRIDESMAIDS could have really versed in sentimentality pretty quick, but it's not a rom-com. It's content to amuse the viewers and make fun at the artificial nature of the "girly" behaviors. It's keeping things simple and doing a very good job at it. The already legendary food-poisoning scene highlights the dichotomies many females are prisoners of very well. While the bridesmaids are fighting over places where to be sick, Annie confronts Helen, sweaty and visibly about to puke, but she pretends that she's fine. I'm not going to spoil that scene's climax, but it literally sent me rolling on the floor laughing, which hadn't happened to me in a few years. I have a weak spot for crude humor, as long as it's made to be funny and not just for shock and this scene is beautifully done.
An all-girl movie that's not a rom-com is a sweet oddity in the Hollywood landscape, an anomaly to treasure and keep in our collective memory. Of course, it doesn't escape a few clichés. There IS romance in the movie (but in which movie isn't there?) and there is no real direction. It's templated, it follows the story closely. Paul Feig seems like he's hired muscle for this gig. He put no spirit whatsoever in his work. Would have it been a better movie with a more involved director? Probably. Given that it's a comedy, it could have benefited different choice that would have highlighted the actors work better. Melissa McCarthy (who plays Megan) has a god gift for slapstick humor and she could have used some more light (the airplane scene could have benefited a better pace and a looser editing, for example). There's a way to film actors like that. BRIDESMAIDS is as good as it gets for social compromise entertainment, but it's not more than that. Maybe you will rewatch it once or twice in your life. Keep an eye on Kristen Wiig though. The girl can write and hopefully she will take the direction for her next script.
SCORE: 77%