Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Movie Review - Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids - ***


Directed by: Paul Feig

Starring: Kristen Wiig, Mya Rudolph, Rose Byrne

Review:  ‘Bridesmaids’ stands up and shouts that women can be raunchy too!  Men get all the press for it and fart jokes and sex jokes certainly play a large part in many successful comedies (Wedding Crashers, 40 Year Old Virgin, The Hangover), but Kristen Wiig and company are here to show you that women can do it up with the best of them.  This movie shows that not only can they do it, but they can do it quite well and can be just as funny as their male counterparts.

‘Bridesmaids’ is exactly that, a movie about a woman who gets married and her ‘Bridesmaids’ for her wedding.  The Bride (Mya Rudolph) has a rag-tag group of characters that she has selected for various reasons.  They all come from different backgrounds and, naturally, have lots of comedy that arises upon all of them getting together.  There is the overweight, raunchy, un-mannered, sister of the groom, there is the shy friend that has led mostly a sheltered life, there is the older woman trying to recapture her youth after being married for years with 3 kids, there is the long-time best friend maid of honor (Wiig) and finally the ‘villain,’ the “new” best friend who is competing to truly be the maid of honor (Byrne).


There are a series of mishaps that occur that show up as a black eye on the resume of the maid of honor.  Eventually, the Bride and maid of honor get into a large fight after which Wiig is banned from coming to the wedding, losing maid of honor status and her best friend in the process.  This leads to a lot of soul searching for Wiig’s character.  She has had a run of bad luck in her life after her bakery flopped as a business and her boyfriend left her she has had bad luck after bad luck and constantly blames the world for her problems.
 
This is often a scenario in which tension can arise.  When people blame the world for their problems they often become soldiers of the “me, me, me” variety and try to take attention away from the one who should be getting it all.  This is the main reason behind why Wiig and the Rudolph get into a fight and Wiig’s character gets called out on being a whiner and needing to realize she gets in her own way.  This is complicated further by the cop that she has recently become involved with breaking up with her and telling her the same thing.  She tries to fix the problem but it just might be too late and everything just might be too screwed up.

As far as these type of plots go there is not any new broken ground here.  The story is pretty standard but what makes the movie is the refreshing take on the characters and the talented actors who give these characters life.  Wiig and Rudolph have showed their talent before and it is full frontal here.  Their comic timing is masterful and they are characters who aren’t given the usual female hang-ups.  While they may have relationship issues and their own insecurities they are portrayed as normal people who deal with these issues as opposed to the standard ‘chick-flick’ fare in which women are stereotyped or too much made out to be ‘Sex and the City’ rip-offs. 

The movie has quite a few good laughs as well as plenty of funny scenes peppered in between the big ones.  I quite enjoyed this movie and it is worth your time.

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