After commenting on Twitter that I had seen and pretty much dug Bridesmaids, good ol’ Wifi Pirate from 3SMOVRadio attempted to clarify by asking if it was The Hangover for women. It is very Hangover-esque but featuring women, not necessarily just for them. As The Hangover was very reminiscent of previous movies by Judd Apatow, it seems fitting that this is one of his productions and directed by Paul Feig, one of the many people I love just for being involved with Arrested Development.
As you can probably guess, Bridesmaids centers around a wedding. The bride-to-be Lillian (Maya Rudolph) wants her lifelong friend Annie (Kristen Wiig) to be her maid of honor but Annie’s life is in shambles. She is broke after a failed business attempt and shares a small apartment with a quirky English brother and sister. She is also quite jaded from a recent breakup and probably should not be anywhere near the planning of a couple’s everlasting happiness. Yet, Annie puts on a happy face and endures even though her expression betrays her desire to yell profanities at all the happy couples throughout.
Lillian introduces the rest of the wedding party including the raunchy mother of three Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), the obnoxiously innocent Becca (Ellie Kemper), the improper and foul-mouthed Megan (Melissa McCarthy), and the controlling perfectionist Helen (Rose Byrne). As the five embark on what would normally be numerous scenes of gossiping or backstabbing in a typical female-biased comedy, there are many inspired moments of gross-outs and physical comedy galore. As such, this is far more satisfying, not to mention hilarious, than the title alone would have you think.
It’s no surprise that I don’t hold out a lot of hope for Hangover 2, so thus Bridesmaids may be the talked-about R-rated comedy of the year. It certainly strives for that title with the knowledge that infantile women and their bodily functions are just as funny as similarly plotted male characters. Yet, much like the best of the entries in this genre, the film is filled with characters who are wacky, yet still realistic which makes it much easier to connect with the story instead of just laughing at the obviously telegraphed portions.
The script from Wiig and Annie Mumolo does not fall into the trap of random sequences strung together for comedic effect or the typical tear-duct cleansing sessions of a normal romantic comedy. There are strong and well-developed characters, genuine character arcs especially with Annie and her romantic flings with Jon Hamm (!) and Chris O’Dowd, and a true sense of comradery between the women as they embark in their quest for the perfect wedding complete with brutal diarrhea or run-ins with an air marshal.
The biggest fault of the movie is its runtime at a hefty two hours and five minutes. Basically, there is no reason a normal comedy should run this long and neither of the two editors seemed to be able to craft a solid narrative out of the (admittedly very funny) interconnecting scenes. I guess then they just stitched it together as good as possible but that left a very uneven and plodding pace present with scenes that easily could have been excised. Considering the strength of the actors and the story itself though, I can almost excuse a bit too much moreso than not enough. In fact, Bridesmaids may be the best movie to bridge the gap between typical male and female movie tastes. That is definitely worth applause.
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