Trite Drama Saps Comedy

Rating: 4/10 (19 September 2012)

Bridesmaids is a great example of how words have lost their meaning in how we describe and interpret our films these days. This film is described as a comedy, but, only perhaps a third of the films is even meant to be humorous. That's probably generous. This isn't just false advertising to the alert movie-goer. It is a sort of self lie that the makers of this film are telling themselves without even knowing it.
Here's what I mean: If only a third of this film is funny, than what is the rest? The rest is light and very shallow drama about a woman who is down on her luck, but also fond of wallowing in her problems. Not the best comedy wellspring. A small part of that is romantic in nature— we see this woman, Annie is her name, be used as a third romantic option by a shallow, rich jerk played by Jon Hamm (as though he just ran on set for a day to do it between projects) and an underdeveloped and unrealistic positive relationship develops between Annie and a European sounding Wisconsin State Trooper. The end result is a minority of scenes devoted to comedy. But the problem is deeper because the film is working so many angles—romantic comedy elements with Annie's relationships, straight romance with her State Trooper love interest, a story about female jealousy, female friendship and wedding procedure as well as an almost non existent attempt to show us a bit of all the bridesmaids (who have almost never even heard of each other for some reason). All this, plus Annie's life falls apart to a pathetic and perhaps gratuitous extent, only to rise in the last five minutes like a phoenix. It is too much—in two senses. One, it makes the film too long. Two hours and fifteen minutes is a long film to endure if it isn't inspired. This film isn't. Lauded as a female response to the male oriented Judd Apatow type comedies of our age, this film is simply that formula with more mope and competitive insecurity. If you like Apatow you'll find this film middling. If you think comedy should be moving beyond that type of film now, you'll be disappointed.
The second way this film is too much is that it stretches the writers and actors too far. The dramatic moments feel contrived, shallow, and generic, yet the comedy is not developed nearly enough. Few jokes are innovative or risky in any way. The performances are dull except Melissa McCarthy, who amazingly scores as the only funny and only touching actor in the whole film. In this sense, despite limited screen time, this is her movie.
I think the headline here is opportunity lost. A comedy with mostly female characters from a female perspective is a good idea. Some of the actors have good comedy ability, used here in the wrong way or not enough. Kristen Wiig may have a good comedy lead in her, but this isn't quite it, Melissa McCarthy needs more screen time to stretch out her talents, and Tim Heidecker (who plays a cameo as the groom) should be allowed to at least take a swing at some jokes. His type of comedy riffing is what American comedy needs more of. It seems symbolic that he played a role that allowed him no chance to add to the undernourished comedy.