Bridesmaids

Plot synopsis:
Annie Walker (Kristen Wiig) is a single woman in her late 30s. Following the failure of her bakery, she lost her boyfriend and her savings, forcing her to take a job as a sales clerk in a jewelry store and to share an apartment with an obnoxious roommate Gil (Matt Lucas) and his sister Brynn (Rebel Wilson). Her business's failure was so painful that she has given up baking entirely. She has a no-strings-attached sexual relationship with the self-absorbed Ted (Jon Hamm) but hopes for something more from him. Her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), is virtually her only source of happiness.
Lillian becomes engaged and asks Annie to be her Maid of Honor. At the engagement party, Annie meets Lillian's bridesmaids: cynical cousin Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey); idealistic friend Becca (Ellie Kemper); the groom's raunchy sister Megan (Melissa McCarthy); and Helen (Rose Byrne), the rich and beautiful wife of the groom's boss. Helen and Annie, who are jealous of each other's friendship with Lillian, take an instant dislike to each other, but Lillian persuades them to spend time together.
Annie takes Lillian and the bridesmaids to a Brazilian steak restaurant for lunch before going to a chic bridal shop. Helen uses her influence to gain entry to the shop because Annie didn't make a reservation. While trying on gowns, the whole party— with the exception of Helen, who chose not to eat before the fitting —becomes sick from food poisoning. Later, Annie's suggestion of a bachelorette party at Lillian's parents' lake house is overruled in favor of a trip to Las Vegas planned by Helen. Worried about her finances and too proud to accept a ticket paid for by Helen, Annie books a ticket in coach although the rest of the party flies first-class. The trip is cut short by an outburst from Annie, who had accepted a sedative from Helen because of her fear of flying. The plane makes an emergency landing in Casper, Wyoming; and the party takes a bus back home. Annie apologizes, but Lillian decides she wants Helen to take over planning the shower and the wedding.
Annie continues to hope for a relationship with Ted, but Officer Nathan Rhodes (Chris O'Dowd), a friendly State Patrol officer who had earlier let her off without a ticket for broken tail lights, begins flirting with her. Nathan encourages her to open a new bakery, but Annie refuses. Following a night together, Nathan buys baking supplies for Annie to start baking again. Offended and overwhelmed, Annie leaves. Annie is later fired for being rude to a customer and kicked out of her apartment by her roommates, forcing her to move in with her mother (Jill Clayburgh).
Annie travels to Helen's home in Chicago for the bridal shower, which has become a Parisian-themed event, an idea that Annie previously came up with but Helen turned down. Helen also upstages Annie's heartfelt, handmade shower gift by giving Lillian a trip to Paris, an idea Helen stole from Annie. Enraged that Helen has taken credit for the Parisian theme, Annie throws a tantrum. Lillian kicks her out of the shower and the wedding. On her way home, Annie is involved in a car accident due to her still-broken tail lights, but the other driver flees the scene. Officer Rhodes is the responding officer, and he admonishes her for not fixing her tail lights and taking responsibility for her life. He storms off when Ted arrives to give Annie a ride. On the ride home, Ted asks Annie to perform oral sex on him. Angered, she breaks off the relationship and walks home.
Annie becomes reclusive, refusing to leave her mother's house and obsessively watching television. Eventually, Megan arrives and gives Annie a pep talk, telling Annie that she must stop blaming the world for her problems and take control of her life. Annie realizes her errors and begins to repair her life, beginning to bake again and getting her car fixed. She tries to make amends with Nathan, but he ignores her. On the day of the wedding, Helen appears at Annie's doorstep distraught; Lillian has disappeared, and Helen begs for Annie's help in finding her. While driving, Helen apologizes to Annie and opens up to her, revealing that people only involve her in their lives because she is good at planning events, but she does not have any true female friends, leading to a reconciliation between them. The two enlist Officer Rhodes to help, and he grudgingly agrees. The group finds Lillian at her own apartment, discovering that she ran from her wedding because of Helen's extravagant planning and from fear of leaving her life in Milwaukee. After reconciling, Annie helps Lillian prepare for her wedding.
Annie resumes her place as Maid of Honor. After the wedding, which Annie agrees with Helen is "perfect", Helen again apologizes to Annie and states her hope that they can be friends in the future. Realizing that Annie and Officer Rhodes were falling in love, Helen also arranged for him to pick up Annie after the wedding. Officer Rhodes and Annie reconcile and the pair ride away in his police car.

Tags: comedy, depressing, adult comedy, psychedelic, humor, prank

Review:
Quite a few plot holes, and there were many scenes where I caught myself rolling my eyes, thinking, "really?" The greatest movies develop their characters so much that you literally feel for their outcomes.
The plot was so weak and rushed for the next pointless comedy spiel, that they didn't give the characters any depth, except maybe the lead of "Annie." I can think of 2 memorable scenes right now from this film, and I saw it last night.
There were some sweet moments in the movie, that for me, held the film from turning into a complete waste of money.
I saw the previews for this movie and thought to myself, wow this seems like the female version of the HangOver.
There is a bit chick flick element to it between the main character and a guy, but it is such a small part of the movie that I would say it's about 85% comedy and 15% romance/chick flick.
I think this was a great movie for female humor, because I have long thought that comedy was dominated by male actors and I am just waiting for some women to jump in there and start paving the way.
Ultimately, I went into the theater with modest expectations, hoping to get a few good laughs out of it.By the time we came out of the theater, my three friends and I had smiles plastered across our faces, and we couldn't stop talking about the film for the next couple hours.
Like all of Apatow's productions, there are admittedly scenes that arguably go a little too far or a little too long, but that's a small criticism when the film successfully fires on so many other cylinders.To start with, the film is hilarious, and I think the comedy far exceeds the standalone bits shown in the trailer.
Not only is she consistently and uniquely funny, but her character is surprisingly well-developed, and Wiig brings the character to vibrant and dynamic life on-screen.And this brings me to my next point about Bridesmaids: the film has a surprising amount of depth that completely caught me off guard.
Bridesmaids isn't a quickie 80-minute gag fest by any stretch of the imagination; it's actually a leisurely paced 2-hour character-driven comedy that takes time to develop its characters and establish the various relationships and resultant conflicts between them.
the anti-chick flick "chick flick" if you will.What I loved about this movie is that although you get a sense of the heart and charm, it's not afraid to pull any punches just because the characters are female (the scene in the bridal shop will be the topic of much discussion, I assure you).
This is like a big slap in the face to all the lame chick flicks out there as of now and a breakthrough, star making leading role for the brilliant and hilarious Kristen Wiig.
I have never seen a comedy in a long time that was as consistently funny and I mean laugh on the ground with tears coming down your face funny as well as touching and for once genuine characters that you can relate to and have an instant, believable, bond and chemistry on screen that makes the ongoing crazy shenanigans all the more effective and hysterical.
The movie goes through typical issues from the average chick flick like jealousy, insecurities, narcissism, cat fights, self-doubt, self-pity, self-destruction you name it but it deals with those is a more honest, realistic non sugar-coated way that was refreshing and smart from the norm and raises the bar so high for chick flicks (which is more anti of that anyways) and comedies in general that I personally can't see any comedy this year or in the future surpassing its comedy greatness, it's golden!!!
We haven't laughed out loud so much in a long time, but you do feel Kristen's pain throughout the movie.
However, on the up side, the trailer doesn't show the funniest jokes in the film like most trailers for comedies do these days (don't you hate it when that happens?).And no.
O'Dowd did a good job playing Wiig's love interest (and you can pretty much see where this is going...), and Hamm did well for the limited amount of screen time he had.Sure, BRIDESMAIDS is predictable as hell but so are 99.9% of other modern comedies.
I guess this film is considered a great "advance" in the field, because now these horrendous script writers and directors have shown that the girls can fart, defecate, curse and inflict "funny" pain just as well as the boys.When will this idiocracy we live in finally get sick of "humor" that would have been considered immature for 12 year old boys as recently as twenty years ago?
Big screen comedies basically have been taken over by the pathetic alumni from SNL and the just as sordidly horrific "talent" emanating from the stable of Judd Apatow.I wonder if Maya Rudolph-yet another ex-SNL cast member-can appreciate the irony of her appearing in a work of "art" like this, considering that she was one of the stars of Idiocracy.
Meanwhile the police officer Nathan Rhodes (Chris O'Dowd) feels attracted to Annie."Bridesmaid" is an overrated comedy with a terrible story, scatological jokes and an envious lead character that takes the most despicable attitudes in the party of her best friend due to her envy.
Last week I was blackmailed into sitting through this chick flick which I'd heard (from guys and girls I thought I trusted) was "hilarious", but the fact that the opening scene almost made me hurl my face off, paved the way for yet another predictably awful cinema experience.
I sat through the movie secretly making notes on my Android, got home, sat down to write this review and thought "where do I start?" and that's when I realised, "when suddenly it becomes difficult to write a review on a movie I hated, I know I've hit an all time favourite" (or not, as it may seem).The story basically follows a bride and her bridesmaids as they try and make it from engagement to marriage and for one reason or another "things don't pan out the way you'd expect" (but actually they do).
The trailers do a good job making this squashed bike wreck look funny – I smile even now as I watch it again – oops – but believe me when I say those are the only funny moments in the movie.There's an uncomfortable silent-but-violent odour of "the hangover" all the way through the movie, the character profiles are roughly the same (the frustrated married one, the sensible one, the crazy one and the weird permed one) but throw in rich-lonely-bimbo and closet lesbian and you basically have 99% of womanhood represented in the movie.
And for writers who understand that good comedy uses humour, subtlety, satire and wit rather than a sledgehammer to get a point across!) This film sets out to shock and that is, in fact, the only area in which it succeeds.The women in it are (mostly) so awful that if you were a guy you'd choose to be gay, and as a woman you would choose to elope!
Bridesmaids will be the surprising film of the year and could very well even be the comedy of the year, topping films like The Hangover II and 30 Minutes Or Less.
Nearly all the scenes featuring her are laugh out loud funny.The writing also shines here as it's Apatowian comedy comes through.
Much in the way that Knocked Up and Superbad worked for their relative stories, Bridesmaids is a rare comedy that has an all female cast, yet can appeal to anyone.I guess that's the biggest surprise here, that this is a film that can work for everyone.
The sex scene is just gross.The only reason I can think of anyone would want to watch this movie is schadenfreude.
I did like Kristen Wiig's character and wouldn't mind seeing her in a romantic comedy.
Let's be honest: when we saw the first trailer for Bridesmaids, who among us didn't think it looked like a dismal rehash of The Hangover (only this one, of course, features a "ratpack" of women)?
But one thing is for sure: Kristen Wiig has proved her worth as a female lead with a serious amount of comedic clout.The story isn't revolutionary: one of two best friends is getting married, and everything involved with said nuptials is threatening to tear their lifelong friendship apart.
Bridesmaids is also peppered with the sort of humor that made movies like Superbad and Knocked Up so funny—it's observant and kitschy in that it rightly jabs several other films that have braved similar issues.
This ends up being a perfectly welcome curve ball, though, as screenwriters Wiig and Mumolo brilliantly utilize the length of the plane trip to said destination to further flesh out their characters and create an impressively humorous string of in-flight mishaps.There are a number of other contributors who make Bridesmaids work extraordinarily well, but, as is the case with any solid piece of cinema, it's best if you set aside some time to take in the whole thing in one fell swoop and let it unravel of its own volition.
I loved Hangover, Superbad, The Office, Blades of Glory, etc, but this movie was not that funny.The whole movie is about a loser character being jealous and petty about her best friend's wedding.
Kristen Wig not funny, Maya Rudolph dumb, Jessica St. Clair dumb, Melissa McCarthy obnoxious at best along with every other actor in this movie.
I thought the acting was outstanding, the writing was superb - funniest movie I've seen in a long time.
Bridesmaids must be the best comedy movie of the year so far, and one of the funniest chick flick comedies ever.First goes to the actors.
The rest of the cast did a great job to this film.Bridesmaids is not as generic as the other female comedies existing.
The performances plus the hilarious humor, this film is easily one of the funniest female comedies ever although it's unnecessarily long but it's undeniably enjoyable(even if you're a guy)..
This movie was so bad, I doubt it can make it into a cult classic selection for horrible films.I've seen comparisons to other films, like Wedding Crashers, Dumb and Dumber, and the Hangover.
What really really annoyed me in the movie was the part in the engagement party where the two women were gushing over each other to speak, they changed places like a gazillion times, and kept talking, and talking, until the slightest humor of the occasion was completely gone.
Instead, we got this disgusting and terrible movie which is a total waste of money and time and an insult to the common sense, after all.
I thought this movie is very funny and well written.I like Kristen Wiig but sometimes on SNL I think she misses the mark but this movie she co-wrote and stared in is a home run.We laughed through out the whole movie and the crowd in the theater reacted the same way.
The rest of the cast was also very good.For a comedy this also had a good storyline and plot with some substance other than slapstick.I would recommend this movie it is what we need in this day and age we are living in.Bravo I hope we see more of this from these women in the near future.I hope it does well at the box office!.
The whole movie is one bad scene after another and seems only to rely on gross out toilet jokes and other disgusting humor that makes me want to wretch at the thought.
However, the stand out performance and the best performance of an actress this year so far comes from Kristen Wiig's multidimensional melding of comedy and drama.How do you complain about a movie as unique as Bridesmaids?
Even so, the only real problem with the film is its song and dance happy ending, undermining what could have been a great finale.Comedies bordering the two-hour mark usually have a hard time engrossing the audience as the jokes run thin and the drama ensues, however, Bridesmaids' comedy becomes smarter and smarter giving each of the bridesmaids a matrimonial purpose in Wiig's fasttrack to the A-List..
Seriously, I really wanted this movie to make me laugh and I tried to participate, until the very last minute of what I kept hoping for that never materialized...funny entertainment..
But this movie doesn't know what it wants to be, and so suffers from the same malaise that afflicts the lead character, Annie: drift.I believe Kristen Wiig has better material in her future.
But it got SO much positive hype, Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 stars (and I usually agree with him), I really like Melissa McCarthy in Mike and Molly, and it even snagged a few major award nominations(!), so I thought I'd give it a go.The subject matter (sleeping around, dysfunctional marriages, and emotional insecurity) was aimed at adults, while the humor (stupidity, farting, vomiting, defecating, fat "jokes", and getting drunk) was aimed at 7 year old boys!
So I was pretty interested in seeing this movie, in the past I've been a big Judd Apatow fan and I like the idea of a female-centered comedy.
I like Rose Byrne but the lines she had weren't funny at all.I can understand there is a need for a ladies version of the Hangover type comedy but this one is just so badly written.
Lillian (Maya Rudolph) picks Annie (Kristen Wiig) as her Maid of Honor, but Helen (Rose Byrne) vies for the job anyway and things get way out of control.This could have been a nice movie regarding friendships if the inappropriate and disgusting parts were eliminated.
Kristen Wiig is untalented and not funny (like her characters on SNL).
I personally prefer most romantic comedies to this movie, girl fights are just terrible to watch on screen.
Yes, I realize that everyone's sense of humor is different, but I do not understand how anyone in their right mind could think this movie was even the slightest bit funny.
I'm not prude and some of the jokes made me feel uncomfortable, and I found myself thinking: "Were the people who wrote this script on crack?" One of the worst movies I have ever seen.
They would consist of a couple jokes that stretched on and on, It constantly got to the point where if a scene started and I was laughing or interested by the end I was just left wondering how long this movie was and when somethings going to happen.
Went to watch this with my girlfriend, I expected this to be good.The only funny/fitting character in this movie the the large girl.
There really is no story line here, its quite predictably trying to implement a female version of 'The hangover' and failing.I found it hard to understand why some people were laughing for some bits of this movie, I believe it may be tuned to a very American sense of humor.I can't remember the last time I paid to see such bad acting.
That's this movie for me.Something I've noticed in reviews for this film is that the word "funny" keeps popping up.
I love watching movies, and all kinds at that, but to sit through this one was nothing short of torture.I like Kristen Wiig.
While it's good to see a female-driven comedy written by women (though produced and directed by men), it would be nice if the movie had some actual humor in it.
And believe me, our little group likes a good laugh and have enjoyed some great funny films.
It sure did feel like you were a cup!Now I'm not bent on using this kind of language, but I have never seen a movie that has made me want to travel back in time, to commit suicide drastically, just so that I would never have to accidentally see this mentally and emotionally challenged crap of a movie.Now even atheists have reason to believe that there is truly a hell to watch out for.
Aside from the lack of comedy aspect of the movie, another reason why it wasn't very good was because there were so many plot holes left in the end.
and only for my girlfriend.So, NPR and other reviewers, stop the subterfuge by comparing a REAL comedy like Hangover with a total chick flick that makes poor attempts at humor...
I have seen funny comedy based films centered around women and this is not one of them.
I might be the odd ball in the bunch, but this movie is not as funny or entertaining like people have been putting it to be.I can count only one scene that grabbed a few jiggles out of me, but the film as a whole, it does not deliver enough comedy to keep me entertained.
Yes a few films will grab the attention of most females and some men, but appealing to the masses, I just don't think women comedy movies can do that.
This movie plays out like a two hour long SNL skit presented by Kristen Wiig and her bunch of humorousness friends.
There are maybe two laughs the whole time and the rest of the movie you're cringing at the ridiculous things the main character does and the stupid way she ruins all the good things in her life.
I kept thinking, as I watched this movie it must be going to get better, it never did and when it finally ended I couldn't believe that anyone would think that this might be construed as a comedy!
I really cant believe that people found this movie hilarious or funny.
If your looking for a good laugh and want a feel good viewing time then please watch "Bridesmaids" it's one comedy film that most any would enjoy it's got a blend of emotion and drama to fill any viewer's taste.