World, meet Kristen Wiig.

Rating: 9/10 (25 May 2011)

World, meet Kristen Wiig. Kristen Wiig, meet world. This is one uncommonly hilarious actress delivering a performance (of a script that she co-wrote with Annie Mumolo) that should endear her to audiences from here to Jupiter. In Bridesmaids, she elevates an otherwise formulaic comedy to heights of unqualified enjoyability.
Wiig plays Annie, a failed baker who is slouching away behind the counter of a jewelry store and having occasional romps with a self-obsessed hunk (the ever-dashing Jon Hamm) who would sooner perform an underwater shark-flossing than commit to a relationship. She had hoped for more, but she has resigned herself to taking what she can get. She agrees to be the maid-of-honor in the wedding of her childhood bestie Lillian (played by Maya Rodulph), accepting all the rights, duties, and catty craziness implied therein. Her fellow bridesmaids make up a colorful assortment of amusing personalities. Not the least of these is Megan (played by the scene-stealing Melissa McCarthy) who suggests enthusiastically that the bridal shower be fight club themed. Annie is immediately upstaged by Helen (Rose Byrne), Lillian's sickly-sweet and effortlessly gorgeous friend from her fiancé's job. She's fashionable, rich, and endlessly capable of making Annie feel hopelessly inadequate.
The group embarks on a journey towards matrimony that is filled with that winning combination of raunchy gags and tenderness that has become synonymous with the Apatow brand (Judd Apatow, the writer and director of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, worked as a producer on this film). Bridesmaids takes the Hollywood assumption that female characters in comedies must be sweet, supportive of, and secondary to their male counterparts and drops a deuce on it. Jokes about explosive diarrhea and projectile puking aren't just for the men anymore. Wiig and her fellow funny-women embrace the sorts of gross-out gags that would make the Farrely brothers blush and the results are side-splitting.
But the movie never loses sight of the relational heart at its core. Director Paul Feig cultivates a sensitive balance between situational antics and the emotional center of the story. In less attentive hands, McCarthy's Megan could have been nothing more than another punch-line but she is instead allowed unexpected depth. Wigg imbues Annie with an air of magnetic unselfconsciousness that makes her sympathetic as she struggles to overcome one failure after another. Her jerky relationship with a charmingly affable Irish cop (Chris O'Dowd) develops naturally and is thoroughly satisfying as a result. These are well drawn characters being played by more-than-capable actors.
Of these it is Wiig's star that shines brightest. Her comic energy combined with surprising dramatic chops result in a performance and a film that is irresistibly likable. Take your bow, Kristen Wiig, those cheers are for you.