Passive-aggressive character types inhabit inconsistently funny and often crude comic spectacle

Rating: 3/10 (12 August 2012)

Many people compared 'Bridesmaids' to 'The Hangover' but in terms of the comic tone of its characters, I found it much more similar to a recent indie film, 'Cyrus'. Both films attempt to get laughs by introducing a series of passive-aggressive types. The passive-aggressive credentials of the film's protagonist, Annie Walker, is established very early on when she sleeps with a boyfriend who also is afflicted with a passive-aggressive personality. When the boyfriend aggressively declares he has a rule about not sleeping over, instead of acting angrily, Annie lamely declares, "you're funny in the morning."
The interesting thing about the passive-aggressive type is that the passivity masks a deeply repressed reservoir of anger. When the anger finally rises to the surface, it often comes out as a challenge, marked by a hurried retreat. We see this when Annie and her best friend Lillian (the bride to be) attempt to take an exercise class in the park without paying. When they're found out by the instructor, they run off with the excuse that they can no longer afford the high price of admission (despite actually costing $12).
Annie's lack of self-esteem is on display when she turns off her customers by telling them that you can't trust anybody, while working as a salesperson at the jewelry store. As is often the case with a lot of the characters here, there's a thin line between the unsavoriness of their blatant aggression and viewing that aggression as humorous.
Often the language of the passive-aggressive character is cloaked in overly diplomatic terms; the underlying sub-text of course, is an insult. For example, when Annie's mother (played by Jill Clayburgh in her last film role) tries to put a positive spin on Annie's negative life situation, she relates a story of a floundering gay prostitute she met at an AA meeting, concluding that "hitting bottom is a good thing."
Screenwriters Wiig and co-writer Annie Mumulo try to mine as many laughs as possible from Lillian's assorted bridesmaids with mixed results. Lillian's cousin Rita can't stand her "disgusting" three teenagers and the joke about semen being all over the house is too crude to be funny. Becca, Lillian's friend from work and Megan, the groom's sister, ineptly conclude that Annie isn't single when they spot her next to two successive creepy guys who they should have known she would have no interest in. Little is done with newly married Becca character throughout the film but Megan (Melissa McCarthy from the 'Mike & Molly' TV series) proves to be one of the more amusing aggressive characters in the passive-aggressive pantheon. Megan not only can bond with a dolphin while on vacation but isn't afraid to make her sexual wants known (in spying one particular tall guy at the wedding, she proclaims, "I'm going to climb that like a tree").
It's Helen, the snippy Trophy wife of the groom's boss, who turns out to be Bridesmaid's central antagonist. Again, the dialectic between her passive and aggressive side is evident when we first meet her. Helen aggressively attempts to steal Annie's thunder as they lock horns with their back and forth toasts to Lillian at the engagement party (the joke becomes tiresome as it goes on for much too long). There's more silly shenanigans during the tennis game, when we view Helen and Annie blasting one another with tennis balls in slow motion. Only Helen's completely lame, passive remark to the stepson's expletive ("put a quarter in the smear jar") hits the mark!
Annie begins to lose Lillian's affections when she brings the bridesmaids to the Brazilian restaurant and most of them end up with food poisoning later on at the fitting room. It's a scene that doesn't work at all as it's too divorced from any kind of recognizable reality (both Megan and Lillian end up defecating in inappropriate places including a sink and outside in the middle of the street). Annie's meltdown on the plane to Vegas proves to be only slightly more amusing. Most of it relies on Annie's face-off with the flight attendant while she's intoxicated. The bit with Annie in sunglasses pretending to be a first-class passenger is something a real drunk would do—but when Annie exclaims that there's a 'colonial woman' churning butter out on the wing—that is truly a line of inspired lunacy! Meanwhile we do take some pleasure in Megan's vindication over her insistence that the man sitting next to her on the plane indeed turns out to be an air marshal.
There's one more truly amusing moment before 'Bridesmaids' devolves into sentimental romantic comedy—that's Annie's confrontation with the young woman back at the jewelry store, resulting in her being fired (in substance: Young lady: Did you take your Xanax? Annie: You have four boyfriends—have fun having a baby at your prom).
Once Annie has her final meltdown at Lillian's shower, Lillian expresses her true feelings toward Annie (how she's truly screwed up the pre-wedding preparations). Events are now set in motion where whatever comedy remains in this very spotty laugh-fest, is lost. Megan drops her animosity toward Annie and conscripts her to help find Lillian who's gotten cold feet about going through with the wedding. I haven't mentioned Officer Rhodes as he's the least interesting character in the film. After Rhodes reluctantly agrees to help locate Lillian (he traces through her cell phone messages), it's only inevitable that he and Annie will end up together after Annie's initial sabotage of their relationship.
'Bridesmaids' probably has gotten more accolades than it deserves as it's one of the few films today that features an ensemble of women in comic roles. Unfortunately those roles are formulaic, as the passive-aggressive types proffered up here, could probably fit into any situation featuring contemporary mores. Occasionally there's a clever line or two but the humor quickly devolves into silly slapstick or outright crudity. Perhaps with some tighter editing, 'Bridesmaids' might have proved more palatable in the end.