Fun Film Even When Some Scenes Don't Work

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2019)

Through most of their life, Annie (Kristen Wiig) and Lillian (Maya Rudolph) have been the best of friends almost closer than sisters from another mother. So when Lillian ties the knot, it's only naturally that she asks Annie to be her Maid of Honour. Things start to get a bit steamy when the insecure Annie starts to feel some tensions when Lillian's posh new friend Helen (Rose Bryne) starts to steal her thunder. Annie's life is really falling apart at the seams right now. Her boyfriend Ted (Jon Hamm) is being a jerk, her roommates are giving her grief and a kindly Officer Rhodes (Chris O'Dowd) is getting rejected by his passion for her because she's not sure about him, even though he let her go without a ticket in spite of her car having a broken tail-light. Will Annie rectify herself from her problems and will she and Lillian reunite their friendship?
It's a tale about true friendship, resentment, romance, humour, and everything from fashionable trendiness to toilet jokes. For the most part it's mostly played for satire largely in part due to Wiig's sharp comic timing and and the brilliant script she co-wrote wrote with Amy Mumolo. Like her alum from "Saturday Night Live" Tina Fey, Wiig succeeds in staying oblivious in situations she shouldn't and gets kudos for remaining that way throughout.
Like any good comedy, "Bridesmaids" has serious undertones where stakes are at the most quite surmountable. The quirks of the film further explore the angst and the insecurities these women face and the girl-talk is not complete overkill.
The opening scenes has Annie and Ted having intercourse and looks like they're having fun, until we realize it's anything but as Ted reveals to the viewers he's no charmer ans kicks her out of his place. Then we see Annie friend Lillian showing off a beautiful diamond ring, Annie was happy for Lillian, that is until her fiance's boss' wife Helen enters the fray (Byrne was perfect here) and then things start to get quite heated. This makes Annie worried that her best friend isn't all that best as she thought. A funny scene where they engage in musical speeches where one tries to usurp one another and they end up singing That's What Friends Are For.
There were a few scenes where the jokes did not work like for instance the scene where the bridesmaids were invited to a Brazilian steak restaurant before entering the boutique bridal shop under Helen's financial advantage and every one of them ends up getting food poisoning. There is a totally grossed out scene where they used a washbasin as a toilet. The mastermind behind this evil scheme is the groom's rotund sister Megan (played with some scene-stealing perfection by Melissa McCarthy). Another scene has Megan literally grinding her teeth into Annie to unravel some home truths while the ladies were on route to Las Vegas.
Although there are men in this movie as well, they are pretty much in the background, though we are welcomed to by the warmly character of Officer Rhodes who has a thing for cupcakes while she eats carrots on the sunrise of his car bonnet. And the funniest scene where purposely commits mischief just to get his attention like speeding, drinking and texting and so on. What makes this script work is that the scenes just flow organically. It never feels staged or just branched out skits from "Saturday Night Live".
We like to participate on the madcap misadventures that Annie takes pursuit in as her life has hit rockier times and it takes this journey ahead to get herself back together again. And granted there are scenes that work most of the time, there are some that don't and just tend to drag, but that few and far between. "Bridesmaids" has high energy and shows that even women can also engage in physical comedy just as effectively as the men, but the journey ahead keeps us invested into the world of friendship and marriage and regaining the will to live.