Likable but too thin and low-key to deliver bigger laughs or a serious point

Rating: Null/10 (19 August 2011)

When I am in the mood for a fun, screwball comedy, it is nice to find a film by Saturday Night Live cast members. Over the years, I have missed a lot of these movies (all of Belushi, Adam Sandler, and Rob Schneider, much of Will Ferrell and Mike Myers and (fortunately) Bill Murray; plus Baby Mama, MacGruber, and others). And there have been some big disappointments (like Master of Disguise, Stuart Saves His Family). But I still look forward to the ones I am able to get to the theater to see. The latest was Bridesmaids, which generally received good reviews but which left me with mixed feelings. The plot is well summarized by other reviews, so I will not repeat it.
There were some funny scenes. Stand-outs include the bridesmaids trying on fancy gowns while being stricken with food poisoning from a diner Wiig took them to; Wiig acting crazy on a plane, or to vent her frustrations at the over-the-top bridal shower, or to get a patrolman's attention. Although crude at times, the movie mainly came across as cute, sweet, and genuine. Overall, the acting was good. Wiig's down-to-earth, slightly cranky policeman boyfriend stole the show. The characters were quirky but had real humanity. Only the narcissistic pig who Wiig spent the night with at the start of the movie was a total loser, and he got some well-deserved comeuppance (but not enough, due to a too low-key Wiig). Otherwise, the movie avoided mean-spirited or over-the-top caricaturing. Even Wiig's nemesis, her childhood friend Maya Rudolph's glitzy, seemingly perfect new friend, ended up being portrayed sympathetically as a decent person. The characters' actions, even when exaggerated for laughs, mostly seemed to flow naturally from who they were presented to be. The movie suggested the larger themes that life is what you make of it and that tomorrow is another day.
But the movie fell short. Qualities that made it endearing also held back and sapped its energy. It was too slight and understated, and its storytelling too choppy, slow, and uncertain (as, to some extent, was Wiig's acting; Rudolph was reduced to a totally straight role, with none of her normal spark). The film's scattered attempts to be serious and to send a message (including simply coasting on some easy-listening song lyrics toward the end) felt vague, superficial, and false.
For example, at a low point for Wiig, when she is hiding out at her mother's home depressed, a loud, crass bridesmaid who is Rudolph's groom's sister and appears to have no prior relationship and to have spent almost no time with Wiig, suddenly shows up and starts wrestling with her on the couch (to get her to show some spunk, we are told). But this key scene (which also includes the sister trashing the groom to Wiig for no reason and with no explanation) comes out of nowhere. There is no preparation for it in the character of this other bridesmaid or any familiarity or rapport between the two women. It is uncomfortable, drawn-out, and phony. Wiig, again acting far too subdued (as she does too often in the film), does not even seem to get it, or to take it anywhere. To chalk this up to Wiig's character's self esteem problems does not make it interesting or effective. Another example, also a key scene, is when the new friend's plans for a flamboyant, extravagant wedding finally become too much for Rudolph, who goes AWOL, returns to her roots, reconciles with Wiig, and says the whole thing has gotten out of hand and out of sync, financially and otherwise, with her family and friends. Yet, the movie bulled right ahead, as if the scene had never happened, to exactly the overblown wedding that Rudolph supposedly had come to realize was not true to who she is, just to squeeze laughs out of all of the excess and to close on a flashy note.
Nor did it help the movie that some of the gags did not flow naturally from the characters and story, but were gratuitous, silly, or pat. A small example was Wiig suddenly becoming childish after a serious scene with the policeman, giggling to him to run the siren, just to provide a light-hearted note to end on. A much worse example was the ill-fitting, baseless, tasteless scene about a sandwich that was tacked on to the end credits when it should have been left on the cutting room floor or for a deleted scenes disk.
These problems dragged down a movie that I wanted to like a lot more.