Review: Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids is, perhaps, the most mis-sold movie of recent memory. I went in thinking I was investing in something akin to a female cast version of The Hangover when, in reality, Bridesmaids does everything it can to break free from the simple one-liner jokes and ends up being an intelligent and well paced comedy that focuses on the pressure and drama that a woman faces as the threat of her best friend moving on and getting married looms over.

Kristen Wiig fronts the cast as Annie, a troubled woman, down on her luck in love and life and, although I feared this would lead us down the chick-flick hole that most would gladly walk down, Bridesmaids pushes all boundaries, introducing a stream of lewd jokes and openness that we rarely see from women in film. Annie struggles as her best friend Lillian announces her engagement, Annie has to deal with the threat of a new friend and three other Bridesmaids that are, unfortunately, criminally underused throughout the film. The film takes some predictablet turns throughout and builds up to a conclusion that is obvious from the outset but the execution is stand out as Annie falls down the rabbit hole, losing her job, her apartment and new love in the same week, ending in a triumphant fall from grace at the wedding shower.

Kristen Wiig plays Annie to perfection throughout the madness, her awkward, bumbling one liners slot in during any scene and brighten up the longer shots that seem to dwell a little too long. Paul Fieg’s direction, while simple and easy ont he eyes, often allows a scene to go on too long, focusing the camera on a set of characters long enough for the joke to stale or the dialogue to stall. Unfortunately, without snappier changes the film dips through the middle of the film and begins to drag slowly towards it’s conclusion. Oftentimes scenes that should have been left on the cutting room floor – The weird, brother-sister room mates that leave an awkward scent in the air or the insertion of a tennis match that seems to serve no purpose, come to mind – and help push the film over the two hour mark enough so that the film feels too long.

The film feels more Apatow than Sandler and that makes sense, considering Judd Apatow’s producer credit, but Paul Feig relies too much on the rom-com elements of the movie rather than the comedy chops of Wiig and her co-stars. Where, in Apatow’s films, the actors give off an improv vibe that comes across natural and easy, Feig pushes the transitions and establishing shots too far and takes away the focus. The script, partly penned by Wiig herself, goes a long way to establish characters that are hardly used which comes across as something that may have been changed part way through production – Melissa Macarthy being the most memorable part of the film, even though her short screen time – but the script is great at establishing Annie and Lillian’s (Played by Maya Rudolph) friendship. Wiig and Rudolph spend a lot of time playing off each other and this rewards nicely towards the end.

It’s a rare thing to encounter a film that focuses solely on woman and Bridesmaids pushes some of the expected cliches to a limit where you almost forget you are, essentially, watching a romantic comedy. The salacious jokes play well in to the characters and the movie is an easy watch. Although Bridesmaids isn’t a perfect film, it pushes past being a simple gender-switch film and provides intelligence with its comedy, a romantic sub-plot that traps the film for far too long and the underlying threat of marriage with Annie’s insecurities is a nice driving force and well worth the patience through the slower scenes.

The comedy scene has been stale for a long time, the Sandler generation of movies have topped the box office for so long I think audiences have forgotten what good comedy can be and I think that, while this film isn’t anything new or exciting, it does show a different side to comedy and will hopefully enlighten audiences to move outside their comfort zone. Yes, Bridesmaids utilises the same bawdy comedy that has spread like wildfire over the past decade, but it treats its material with respect offers audiences an alternative; I think Wiig and Fieg understand that, while an audience loves comedy, they’re not too used to seeing an all-female cast in such open circumstances and so keep their material relatively safe. Bridesmaids in inoffensive and easy to watch, easily the best comedy to come out of Hollywood in the last couple of years.