Hilarious

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2011)

Kristen Wiig stars and co-writes this Judd Apatow-produced film. It's billed as a raunchy, female-centric comedy, sort of a girly Hangover (which I'm sure was the original pitch), but it's far better than one might expect from that description. There's a real story here, with very well written characters. And, while it's absolutely hilarious when it wants to be, the pathos Wiig wants you to feel for the characters works. Wiig plays a hopeless woman in her mid-thirties. She has recently lost her bakery, as well as her boyfriend. The only attention she gets from men now is from a heartless prick (John Hamm) who just wants her as a friend with benefits. She's further hurt when her best friend (Maya Rudolph) announces that she's engaged.
Wiig is chosen as the maid of honor, but she finds that she's in direct competition with Rudolph's other close friend, Rose Byrne, who is wealthy and can provide Rudolph with a lot of things that Wiig (who works as a saleswoman in a jewelry store) could not. The other bridesmaids are played by Wendi McLendon-Covey (of Reno 911), Ellie Kemper (of The Office) and Melissa McCarthy (of Mike and Molly). Their pre-wedding adventures generally end with Wiig screwing everything up. Chris O'Dowd (of The IT Crowd) has a nice role as a police officer who gets involved with Wiig. Yeah, it's a predictable romance, but O'Dowd's character is well written and he's very funny and charming. The romance actually develops quite naturally. Jill Clayburgh's final role is as Wiig's goofy but understanding mother. McCarthy, a very large and confident woman, is probably the breakout performer of the film. Everything she says and does in the movie is a riot.
Wiig may be playing a character that she's played before on Saturday Night Live and in many of her film appearances, but it's still perfectly funny. And with the great writing backing the character, I'd say the performance is quite excellent. Byrne, who could easily have become a harpy, is given several small details that give us an insight into her character (most notably her two step-kids, who hate her). The film is almost cursed with too many great characters. McLendon-Covey and Kemper pretty much disappear at a certain point of the film, which is unfortunate. McLendon-Covey, in particular, is hilarious when describing her three foul-mouthed, chronically masturbating sons. There are also several non-speaking roles played by people comedy buffs will recognize, like Tim Heidecker (of Tim & Eric fame) as Rudolph's husband-to-be, Lynne Marie Stewart (who plays Charlie Day's mom on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as Rudolph's mother, and Nancy Carell (née Walls, Stephen Carell's wife and former Daily Show correspondent) and Melanie Hutsell (whom I haven't seen since the mid-90s when she was on SNL) play Byrne's and Wiig's tennis partners in one great sequence.
About the only thing I didn't like in the film was John Hamm's role, which is far too two-dimensional compared to everyone else. He feels like he's in a much broader comedy (I think Wiig just wanted to share a goofy sex sequence with him; by the way, between this movie and MacGruber, Wiig is the queen of the awkward sex sequence). Director Paul Feig is best known as the creator of the classic dramedy series Freaks and Geeks, and he's directed for pretty much every great comedy series of the past decade and a half, including Arrested Development, 30 Rock, The Office and Parks & Recreation, so you should know you're in great hands there.