Bridesmaids: Hitting Rock Bottom Has Never Been Funnier!

Director Paul Feig teams with writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumoloto to deliver one of the most painfully humorous films of the year.  For her part, Wiig also leads a stellar comic cast bringing a fresh new brand of comedy to the big screen.

Premise: Annie is picked as her best friend’s maid of honor, just as the rest of her life is falling completely apart.  Ultimately, dealing with her crumbling life and her friend’s wedding prove too much for her. Result: A laugh-out-loud comedy that puts a new spin on comedic timing and will force audiences to cry with laugher in between cringes.

Annie (Wiig) and best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) have known one another since childhood.  It is only fitting, therefore, that Annie assume the role of Maid of Honor at Lillian’s wedding.  This “honor” is fraught with both joy and terribly, terribly bad timing.  While these are the happiest moments in Lillian’s life, Annie’s could not be more the opposite: her boyfriend left her, her cake shop went under, she’s constantly humiliated by her evil fu$kbuddy (Jon Hamm), and her home life cannot be creepier with British Brother and Sister roommates that look and act like maniacal creatures from a Lewis Carol fantasy. But of course, with Murphy’s Law firmly at the helm, everything somehow gets much, much worse.

Bridesmaids is basically a carnival of inane, slapstick outcomes that might just as well have been delivered by Johnny Knoxville and his cabal of clowns.  However, some absolutely genius comedic timing by virtually every character and a strong script ripe with smart but also credible emotion moves the film past slapstick into seriously powerful comedic brilliance.

The film starts out with some scattered laughs and awkward situations that don’t effectively foreshadow the raucous antics to come.  Theis movie allows for impromptu performances from the actors ad-libbing to infuse greater humor and at first this comes of somewhat amateurish.  Initially, there is an odd sense that this film is simply a series of random comments and low whispers spilling from clenched lips. 

Of course, that all changes as soon as the wedding plan extravaganza begins.  The first stop on this crazy train is the rehearsal party where all the Bridesmaids are introduced.  Like a stroll through the loony bin, each character is more ridiculous than the last, each contributing overtly to Annie’s nightmare. 

There’s Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), the vulgar, sex-starved mother of a hornet’s nest of foul-mouthed boy-monsters that obviously did not fall far from the tree.  Then Becca (Ellie Kemper), the virginal newlywed, who seems to exist only to make Annie feel worse about being single.  And then there’s Meghan (played brilliantly by Melissa McCarthy) an over-weight tornado of comedic awkwardness that steals every scene unapologetically.   But most of all Helen (Rose Byrne) the sinister Miss Perfect who rivals Annie for the one thing she still has in her life, Lillian.  Helen vs. Annie is a modern-day David and Goliath ripe with hilarious, uncomfortable passive-aggressive warfare that evokes fresh scenes of comic genius. 

Another sign of the depth of this film is the depth of the cast.  The aforementioned core of Bridesmaids certainly burn brightest in this comedic crucible, but they are absolutely lifted by nuanced and bizarre characters littering the rest of the screen.  There are the genuine freaks such as Annie’s quasi-incestuous roommates (Rebel Wilson and Matt Lucas) or her creepy boss (played by the brilliant Michael Hitchcock).  But there are also genuine casting supports, such as Chris O’Dowd, the love interest, or Jill Clayburgh as the subtly bizarre but loving “Mom”. 

Bridesmaids is a raunchy walk through life as seen through the eyes of David Sedaris and the irreverence of Van Wilder.  Each scene is funnier and somehow more depressing than the last.  At every turn, Annie both consciously and subconsciously sabotages every aspect of her life and finds more ridiculous ways to do the same to Lillian’s wedding plans. 

The true genius is how helpless audiences are left: not only are there powerfully chaotic scenes that will leave observers gasping for air in between choking laughter (I nearly lost vision in my left eye after a disastrous Bridal Shop scene) but the film is a perfect example of attention to detail. At every turn there are clever, whispered quips and absurd but somehow real events that push this film from funny to brilliant.

Mid-way through, the movie even manages to smuggle in a romantic plot line that actually somehow feels right.  It is not over the top – it is endearing, funny, and it is difficult not to root for the couple at the story’s end; all this is naturally ironic, of course, in a film not too obliquely about getting married.

Ultimately, Bridesmaids is a traditional tour de farce that successfully mimics other films that attracts men of all ages to laugh at silly, immature jokes about personal misery and bodily fluids.  Yet, brilliantly, this film is helmed entirely by women, each different, nuanced and powerful examples of just how capable women are in delivering the type of comedy previously thought of as out of reach.  Nowhere do you see Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Steve Carel or Sacha Baron Cohen; yet at no point do we long for them either,  proof that this film may evoke their brands of humor, but certainly holds its own.

While some aspects of the film could have been improved (such as the ending), this movie does not disappoint. Bridesmaids is outstandingly funny and also offers deep characters living through serious life-altering events that make the experience more than a fleeting joke.  Audiences can only hope that this comedic lightening strikes twice.

 Rating: 8 – An expensive red wine and juicy steak