A romcom with emotional depth?

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2012)

"You read my diary? - At first I did not know it was your diary, I thought it was a very sad handwritten book."
At first you'd think that 'Bridesmaids' would just be another romcom. Women having a good time before the wedding with a bachelorette party, meeting men etc and losing every male audience member while doing it. Well, 'Bridesmaids' proves to be a fresh example of a new strong female comedy.
'Bridesmaids' is directed by Paul Feig, who has made a name of himself directing award winning TV series like 'The Office', 'Mad Men' and 'Weeds'. But this is not the reason why 'Bridesmaids' is a success. The whole glory and honor goes to Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who have written the script. What I've read is that Wiig and Mumolo (who makes a short appearance in the movie as the nervous plane passenger) wrote the basic plot and dialogue for the film and when the film went in to production, the cast met and rehearsed for a couple of weeks. The dialogue, the scenes that then came to the screen are mostly improvised by the performers.
Wiig stars in her first major role as Annie, a 30 something woman who has lost pretty much everything. Her fiancé, her business and self respect. Her societal clock is ticking. We all know that in the US, a woman of that age is considered a failure. Get married, get children and lose yourself in the illusion inside the white picket fence. She tries to do everything to get her hands on the cocky money man (Jon Hamm), even though she knows that he's just using her.
Despite all this crap in her life, she does have something nice happening in her life (not to her, though). Her best friend Lily (Maya Rudolph) is getting married and asks her to be her maid of honor. Without money, how does she manage to make Lily's day the best ever possible? And then there's Lily's new friend Helen (Rose Byrne) fighting for the title BFF, doing everything she can to make Annie look meaningless.
The bachelorette party, Vegas, the bridal shower. All clichés that has to be in the movie of course, but the scenes end up being nothing close to a cliché. We have the female rat pack including Megan, Rita and Becca. Megan (Melissa McCarthy) is the not so typical woman. She's more of a masculine trashtalker who has limitless confidence towards the opposite sex. Rita is bored with her "perfect" life and Becca is a sweet innocent woman who knows NOTHING of the real life. Six different women celebrating the last days of Lily's single life. What could go wrong?
Like I said earlier, Paul Feig has nothing to do with the success of 'Bridesmaids'. It's a good thing that he has let loose the women and let them go on their way. Wiig and McCarthy are powerful comedians and there are several scenes that will deliver serious laughter. The scene in the bridal shop, the airplane, the bridal shower to name a few.
There was one unfamiliar face that I started to like a lot. Chris O'Dowd who plays the police officer did a fantastic and in my opinion a realistic performance. I enjoyed it a lot and I'm sure that after the success of 'Bridesmaids', he (as Kristen Wiig) will get some serious offers from the production companies.
There is one thing that "bothered" me. Like most of the other Apatow productions, 'Bridesmaids' could've been edited a 10-15 minutes shorter. Fortunately 'Bridesmaids' ain't no 'Funny People' in length but some repetitive comedy can be seen in the film.
But now for the real reason why 'Bridesmaids' is in my opinion a good movie. This movie has some enormous emotional depth. When was the last time you saw a film with female leads talking of something else than men? Women and their ways of thinking will always be somewhat of a mystery to men but 'Bridesmaids' investigates and gives a realistic (at least that is what I think) view on how the female friendship works. The movie gives a whole different perspective on women and their friendship on the screen. F**k all the lame '27 Dresses', 'In Her Shoes' and 'Bride Wars'. This is the real stuff (still, just thinking over here!)
I hope that 'Bridesmaids' will change the view on how studios see female comedies. This film is smart, sexy, funny and in some ways cruel. It doesn't star the soon-to-be relics like Julia Roberts or whatever. The cast is somewhat unfamiliar to the bigger audience but managed to make hell of a lot of money because of the strong cast and performances. Recommended! Also to those with a purple helmeted beaver basher.