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Kristin Wiig has
been a supporting
actress in her fair
share of movies.
Over the past few
years she’s been in
plenty including
Paul
and
Extract
just to name a few.
In all of her
supporting roles
she’s done enough to
earn a shot at
starring in her own
movie. With
Bridesmaids
she finally gets
that opportunity and
she makes the best
of it.
Bridesmaids
is about Annie (Wiig),
a woman whose life
sucks. She lives
with creepy
roommates. She’s an
awful sex-based
relationship with a
guy that’s a total
tool. She dumped all
of her money into a
bakery that folded.
She works at a
jewelry store and
she’s terrible at
that. Basically
Annie’s life sucks.
The only good thing
in her life is her
best friend Lillian
(Maya Rudolph.) All
is fine on that
front between
Lillian and Annie.
Everything’s fine
until Lillian
announces that she’s
getting married. Of
course since the two
are so close, she
asks Annie to be her
maid of honor and be
involved in planning
the wedding. It’s a
terrible time for
Maggie to have to do
something like that,
but she agrees. The
laughs ensue as she
attempts to keep it
together in spite of
her life being in
shambles and her
best friend getting
a new best friend in
Helen (Rose Byrne.)
Bridesmaids
is a raunchy female
comedy, something
that really hasn’t
been done all that
much. The closest
thing to come to a
raunchy female
comedy is
The
Sweetest Thing
with Cameron Diaz
and Christina
Applegate. But
that’s really the
only other comedy of
this nature of note.
Bridesmaids
got critical acclaim
for this
characteristic
alone. Sure, it’s
great to see that
type of movie made
this way and it’s a
new spin but I’m not
sure if perception
should earn it
points just for
perception’s sake.
That’s a small knock
with this movie, the
only big knock with
the movie is that
they sit on jokes
about 30 seconds
longer than they
should. Effective
comedies are all
about timing and
movement and in
points the timing
here is a little bit
off. It’s not a
common theme, but
it’s something
that’s pretty
evident at the
beginning of the
movie.
Sure
there are flaws but
there’s way more
going for this movie
than going against
it. Paul Feig did a
good job directing
and the writing 80%
of the time is
spot-on.
Bridesmaids
really shines though
because Wiig is
terrific and
convincing in the
main role. She’s fun
to follow and great
to watch. Every
supporting actor
outside of her was
cast wonderfully
too. Melissa
McCarthy from Mike
and Molly is
astonishingly funny
throughout the movie
and Jon Hamm of Mad
Men steals the show
in a supporting role
(and the gag reel
too.)
Bridesmaids does
have some slow
moments, but
thankfully all of
those slow moments
come at the
beginning of the
film when things are
getting set up. It
sets up a tad too
slow for my taste,
but it picks up and
steamrolls for the
remainder of the
movie after the
first twenty
minutes. The only
thing I truly
disliked about the
movie was the music
montage/video at the
end. It’s
unnecessary for
Wilson Phillips to
be featured in
another comedy after
Harold and Kumar. I
didn’t like that
featured here, and
it was a bit of a
bummer that they
chose that song to
highlight.
This movie has a
plethora of extras
features with as
many laughs as the
movie. The gag reel
and line-o-rama
pieces highlighting
each actor’s lines
are hilarious. And
the deleted scenes
are moderately funny
as well. Nothing in
the extras is worth
paying close
attention to but the
disc has some nice
supplements.
Bridesmaids
is a fun pickup for
couples. Men will
laugh at it because
it’s gross in spots
while women will
laugh at it because
the grossness is
coming from a female
perspective. I’m not
sure that it’s the
best comedy of 2011
but it’s definitely
worth watching.
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