Having the Wedding Cake and Eating it Too. It's a Women's World, After All.

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2011)

Maybe gross-out comedy and chick flicks aren't usually connected, but that should all change with Paul Feig's Bridesmaids. The Judd Apatow-backed comedy boldly bucks that trend by carefully balancing emotional elements and hilarious jokes. What many comedies are incapable of doing these days is getting dramatic points across while simultaneously making the audience laugh. And that is just where Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig's screenplay succeeds so brilliantly. There is, of course, a brilliant group of actresses that puts her writing to work as well. This cliché-busting doesn't last the entire movie, however--it regresses into typical romantic comedy territory in the final third--but no matter, Bridesmaids is one of the only funny comedies in recent memory.
Bridesmaids' wonderful central character is Annie, played by Kristen Wiig. Annie's life hasn't been every woman's dream. Her venture as a baker has failed completely, she can't afford her rent, she has occasional sexual romps with a man (Jon Hamm) who refuses to be her boyfriend, and she simply has no friends. Even worse is the fact that her best friend (Maya Rudolph) is getting married and has asked her to be the maid of honor. And to complete it all, she has to deal with a troop of other women helping with the wedding. The ensemble cast is rounded out by Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLoven-Corey, and Ellie Kemper.
But just why does Bridesmaids rise above other female-driven rom-coms? The simple answer is Kristen Wiig. Her writing breathes life into normally one-dimensional misguided women. The more complicated answer is all of the actresses' ability to make each character seem normal. More often than not, women with waists the size of toothpicks prance across the screen in search of a male counterpart that they hoped to marry. This is not the case with the women of Bridesmaids. Those who have married or placed themselves in other traditional roles have found themselves to be stuck in harmful situations. Characters like Annie who haven't still have their own problems. It's not easy being a woman, apparently (please note that I'm male), and Bridesmaids certainly glorifies living the life of a "real" woman who actually faces problems.
Bridesmaids was nicknamed "the female Hangover" when the trailer came out. That's not a horrible comparison at times, but most often, Bridesmaids is an original movie. None of the jokes are borrowed and while some of the characters feel like Apatow archetypes now, each woman seems new and enriched. Even the method in which punchlines are told is original. There are two sequences, one on a plane involving a drugged out Annie stumbling through first class and one in a fitting shop involving food poisoning and a white dress, in particular that are notable for being especially hilarious. The delivery is important: in both scenes, five jokes come together in one big punchline that caused the audience to roar with laughter. It's a grand but all too normal affair and it works for almost all of the movie.
If Bridesmaids is the future of comedy, I look forward to going to the movies more often. Women are just as hilarious as men. It's a simple fact of life that writers often ignore. And all it took was Mumolo and Wiig to show us this. Equally emotional and sexual, Bridesmaids is a smart comedy that only comes once a year. Say "I do" to Bridesmaids. It's $11 that's actually worth spending at the movies.