Very funny female comedy

Rating: 7/10 (14 August 2011)

Kristen Wiig is without a doubt one of the best members of the Saturday Night Live cast. She's had some moderate success in movies so far with supporting roles in Paul, Whip It, and a very small role in the comedy Date Night. I've been wanting to see her get a starring role for quite sometime now, but does it end up being good or not? In Bridesmaids, Annie (Kristen Wiig) is picked to be the maid of honor by her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). Annie and Lillian have been best friends since they were young and Annie, getting to be her best friends maid of honor, should be lots of fun and a time to make some great memories right? Wrong. Once Annie gets introduced to another member of the bridal party Helen (Rose Byrne), all hell breaks loose between them. We get the two of them bickering throughout the majority of the movie and trying to one up each other to show Lillian how much better they are than one another. Along for the ride is the rest of the bridal party played by the likes of Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper from The Office, and Melissa McCarthy, who ends up stealing the entire movie.
There is also a subplot involving Annie and a police officer played by Chris O'Dowd. While a few of the scenes between them feel unnecessary, O'Dowd comes off as sweet and funny in the nice guy role. Another subplot involves Mad Men's Jon Hamm but he feels underused and surprisingly isn't very funny in his role. One problem that I have with this movie is the back and forth with Wiig and Byrne. While both women are good in their roles the scenes where they try to one up each other just come off as annoying and make their characters, especially Bryne's, unlikeable.
All in all, the movie ends up being quite hilarious overall. Wiig shows that she can be a leading lady in a comedy. Maya Rudolph continues to show off her comedic chops time and time again and we get a breakout star in Melissa McCarthy.
Other than a scene involving gross-out humor the movie is a funny, raunchy, and sometimes sweet comedy that pretty much all women, and even a good bit of men are sure, to enjoy.
Rating: 7.5/10