Serious drama and gross-out comedy - an uneasy mix but it worked

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2012)

This movie was all over the map. It was a serious drama about friendships, and about the sad plight of single women in contemporary society having to pretend to be okay with mistreatment by males as they attempt to show how "liberated" they are. Kristen Wiig was excellent both as a dramatic actress with great depth of expression (when needed) and at the same time, capable of doing physical comedy of the sort displayed in her Saturday Night Live skits. The scene when she was first stopped by the policeman and tried to demonstrate (unnecessarily, as it turned out) that she was not drunk was one such example. Which leads to the SPOILER - the one area in which the story didn't ring true related to her rejection of the policeman after they had spent the night together and he openly expressed a wish to keep things going (instead of just sending her away like John Hamm's character). It seemed like a plot contrivance to inject more suspense into the story (i.e. "Would they reconcile? Had she ruined her chance for happiness?") as there was no clear reason why she fled and then refused to return his calls etc. I see that as unrealistic behavior, a situation driven by plot and not character. Otherwise, while the movie didn't always seem clear as to what it intended to be (i.e. a gal pal comedy? a poignant drama about human relations?) nevertheless all the pieces added up into a moving film. PS, the trailer is entirely misleading and I can imagine many expecting a comedy romp were disappointed.