Dir. Paul Feig, USA, 2011, 125mins
Cast: Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Hopefully, this should be the last time that any review will have to enlighten the reader about the sheer brilliance of Kristin Wiig. Consigned to film-stealing bit parts in the likes of Adventureland, Ghost World, and Paul, no longer will she have to be prefixed as a Saturday Night Live alumni existing in the shadow of Tina Fey and, let’s be honest about this, female comediennes are hardly flooding the multiplexes in lead roles.
Bridesmaids is her big day, because although it is little more than an intermittently hilarious, gender reversal skew on The Hangover, it’ll be remembered as the movie that forced her down the aisle towards the A-List, and deservedly so.
Annie (Wiig) and Lillian (Rudolph) have been best friends since childhood, and with the latter’s forthcoming nuptials on the horizon, Annie has been chosen as maid of honour. A road to matrimony that would have been made much easier without the interference of Annie’s super well organised fellow bridesmaid Helen (Byrne), sticking her well-to-do nose in at every opportunity. This clash of the bridesmaids inevitably leads to food-fights, one-up[wo]manship, speech making, a dress fitting from hell, and ultimately the test of true friendship.
Bridesmaids is a rarity: a chick flick with mass appeal for the demographic that usually flock to Judd Apatow movies (here acting as producer). That audience expects immaturity and toilet humour, which is still here in abundance, but it is balanced with an inherent sweetness and a consistently likeable cast.
Men might be reticent thanks to the premise and confetti, but after half an hour will no doubt revel in the scattershot humour and funny, if somewhat uninspired set-pieces. The fairer sex will embrace the rare brilliance of a female ensemble getting one over on the guys in terms of jokes and focus. Bridesmaids appears to have been crafted as an experience to make people laugh, regardless of your gender or comedic predilection.
At the forefront is Wiig’s heartfelt central performance, during which she manages to be charming, sassy, and extremely funny. An extended sequence in which she repeatedly commits driving offences in order to rile Chris O’Dowd’s (also surprisingly effective) police officer, is guaranteed to give you stomach cramps. Of the train carrying collective, Rudolph is fine as the understanding friend, and Byrne dizzily bitchy as the rival maid of honour. The only member who irks is McCarthy, seemingly playing the Zach Galifinkas role from The Hangover but without much charm.
Bridesmaids suffers from the worrying trend of being overlong, and I felt more enamoured with Wiig than the entire movie, but these are hardly “speak now or forever hold your peace” sized niggles. You don’t need to wait for an invite to see what is, up till now, the comedy of the year.
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