Together alone

Rating: Null/10 (3 December 2011)

The Judd Apatow formula has worked well so far: lay out a moment of personal crisis that we know should be despairing for the microcosm of the protagonist but isn't because we're not yet aware of the full implications, at the outset posit this to be a kind of charm then allow him or her to swim to the edges of that microcosm with increasing awkwardness. Offset each new low with as much crudeness possible so that it sinks in a little later that we were laughing with pain. Finally express the life-altering realization with as much organic drama the specific world allows.
So it is always the balance of the pie in the face with some emotional maturity in handling the aftermath that makes these work. And the transitions need to be smooth, from disastrous fun to self- examination. In the best of cases anyway, because he's also produced a slew of crap.
It goes without saying that this is a notch or two above The Hangover, even though it's a similar scenario except with women having to handle the rite of passage. So we have a person who needs to pull together all her resources to stage an important event, she needs to plan, to lead, to be creative but responsible; of course her life is an emotionally disheveled mess, so it's a resounding failure that reflects on her. It reflects on the sex she chooses to have.
But she is an artist we learn, a very talent baker dismayed by financial failure. We know that she will bake again before it's over, so it's all a matter of realizing her life is that pliant dough she needs to shape. And she needs to be slapped hard enough to discover the courage to begin to.
There is an antagonist who makes every step of the way more miserable, but she is only the pretty picture that we first meet, a façade as fragile as she is. They become friends in the end. She discovers sex that is not self-reproach. Joy that is not ego.
The only downside is that for all the slaps she has been dealt, she only wakes up when the fat, unattractive bridesmaid lays it out for her.
Story-wise it's as poignant as Adventureland strained to be, but even funnier than Superbad because the passage is already from a mature world. So every mishap is a laugh that wounds deeper and vice versa. It's a world where polite appearances must be kept, and the smile be fresh and social in company.
Being what it is, the film can only support so much talk; the bottom-line for me is that I am given preposterous stuff to laugh, without feeling I'm being condescended to like a total moron by the wrap-around into actual life.