Sweetest confection, a comedy binge

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2017)

Wow, I'm left having to seriously question my gender after I so much enjoyed watching this comedic tour de force. On a second viewing too I was again crying tears of joy and empathy for the company of girls who pull this off so well. The writing is perfect, and the gross-out slapstick and wisecracks traditionally given to a bunch of dudes are doubly enhanced delivered by this feminine ensemble. Men are very peripheral here - the only more fully-drawn featured fella has to mostly remain on the stage margins. However Chris O'Dowd is perfect as the chatty, selfless but not creepy match for poor Annie. They have such a lovely no frills off-beat romance. This contrasts with the elaborate wedding the movie might appear to be about but of course is not. One cant but wonder if Annie has learned never even to entertain the idea of wedding in the future i.e. on the day she she bags her knight in shining armor. Is this movie devaluing weddings? A bit. Pehaps it's just life events challenge us all and we find ourselves viewing the wedding from Annie's perspective: essentially a loss of a friend with one's youthful hopes & dreams given away to a bland indefinite future. The downward spiraling situation of Annie's played by the waifish Kirsten Wiig serves as the central comedy fulcrum. Her friends are unable to pull her out as she stumbles around and observes so recklessly various absurd truths. She fights a lonely battle trying to stop her friend's wedding becoming a charade masterminded by loathsome Helen Harris the Third. But there's a naive lack of cynicism and mutual high regard in the air so that by the end, miraculously the value of the titular wedding has not been completely undermined, just a little though, quietly upstaged by Annie's unconventional romance. There's numerous mad and funny characters throughout like weird lodger Brynn played by Rebel Wilson. Ultimately it's the cogent story that has the touch of Jane Austin about it, the great bits of dialogue and the star-quality acting that distinguishes this film as top class.