Bridesmaids *****
The biggest mistake you can make is to dismiss Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids as yet another pre-wedding ‘chick flick’, along the lines of 27 Dresses. An even bigger one is writing it off as simply a ‘female Hangover’ – even though contrary to critic sentiment, the lads in Bangkok are riding high at No.2 slot in the UK box office. In this sense, there’s still plenty of mileage left in stag/hen comedy. The problem Bridesmaids has is its goofy, snappy trailer could never do justice to the excellent timing and delivery that’s right on the mark.
Bridesmaids sees Annie (Kristen Wiig) picked as her best friend Lillian’s (Maya Rudolph) maid of honour. Although happy for her, it highlights what’s missing from Annie’s life, and she soon discovers just how much pressure is involved helping organise Lillian’s big day, including the hen night. Things don’t help when you’re lovelorn and broke and have an annoyingly perfect and rich girlfriend of Lillian’s (Rose Byrne) hell bent on upstaging you. It looks like Annie is going to have to bluff her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals with an oddball group of bridesmaids.
As co-writer, star Wiig is the perfect choice for the lead of Annie because she knows her material and can play down extraordinary moments of madness. After popping up on international radar as potty-mouthed Ruth Buggs in Paul – Americans will know her better from SNL, it feels as though this is Wiig’s true moment to shine. She’s helped co-pen a comedy where women are finally not just pretty, witty appendages, but damn funny as hell. The writing is razor-sharp and targeted at both sexes – and yes, more males than females were howling with laughter in our screening. It also helps that Wiig is pitch-perfect, with one of the best and most hilarious post-sex conversations with Jon Hamm as her cocky ‘f**kbuddy” in an opening clincher in a long time.
The visual gags never overstay their screen welcome but add just enough to portray any given situation, or enhance it further. Wiig and co have thought long hard about the length of other set pieces in a film, too, with some resorting to toilet humour. But it’s delivered in a more heartfelt and meaningful manner – if that’s possible – that has you screwing your face up in disgust while crying with laughter in sympathy, such as the infamous food poisoning scenes. It’s as though the all-female writing team – that includes Annie Mumolo (the nervous woman on the plane next to Annie in the film) – has taken traditionally male-focused humour and given it purpose.
One the biggest stars to shine in this is Melissa McCarthy of Samantha Who? fame who, no stranger to weighty issues in her roles, is man-hungry ‘government agent’ and Lillian’s future sister-in-law, tomboy Megan, who doesn’t let anything or anyone bring her down. The comic timing between her and Wiig is genius, slowing down the pace to capture a poignant moment, before ramping it up again – and no one will forget Megan’s meat sandwich moment at the end in a hurry. In fact, Byrne is also brilliant as uptight Helen, Annie’s nemesis, with her most memorable – and the film’s never-ending – scene opposite Wiig at the engagement party.
Non-US talent both shines and flickers. On the plus side, Chris O’Dowd is like a less-overbearing Irish Seth Rogen as Officer Nathan Rhodes, Annie’s love interest. He treads a finer, more endearing line as Rhodes, and although seems like an unlikely union with Wiig, matches her deadpan wit and delivery as one of the most compelling rom-com pairings in recent years – by the way, this is the only rom-com element as Bridesmaids avoids most of the genre clichés, until the very end that is. On the downside, the scenes with Little Britain’s Matt Lucas and Aussie actress Rebel Wilson as Annie’s flatmates seem relatively pointless, adding nothing to the story. It’s as though Wiig fancied having Lucas in it, so wrote him in. As these scenes are brief, they don’t detract from the overall entertainment value.
Bridesmaids is THE best unisex night out at the cinema you’ll have in ages – this is the best proposal yet, and an invite you shouldn’t decline.
5/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
