The idea of “Bridesmaids” intrigued me a lot: a raunchy, “Hangover” style comedy but with women as the lead characters. Ultimately though, the movie hedged its bet and relied on some overused and uninspired chick flick clichés that couldn’t even be saved by the comic talents of Kristin Wiig and Melissa McCarthy.
Wiig is Annie, and has, for several years now, been the shining star of Saturday Night Live, and McCarthy (as Megan) seemingly burst out of nowhere onto the sitcom “Mike & Molly” (stealing Amy Poehler’s Emmy in the process), and these two are the comic highlights of the picture, which also include such familiar faces as Maya Rudolph (another SNL alumni, currently doing an only occasionally funny Oprah impression in the only occasionally funny sitcom “Up All Night”) as Lillian, the bride to be, Ellie Kemper (The cute as a button receptionist, Erin, from the quickly declining “The Office”) as sweet newlywed Becca, Rose Byrne (the young attorney from “Damages”) as Helen, the perfectly sweet bitch, and the late Jill Clayburgh in one of her final roles as Annie’s common-sense mom. A face I didn’t recognize, but which made a big impression anyway was Wendi McLendon-Covey as the salty Rita. Rita gets some of the film’s best, dirtiest lines, but there is way too little of her in the film.
When Lillian announces her engagementto longtime boyfriend Dougie, she asks longtime best friend Annie to be her maid of honor. Annie is a pretty pathetic character though: her business failed, her roommates are an odd English man and his even odder sister, and the closest thing to a relationship she has is with a guy she sleeps with but who won’t let her spend the night. The wedding is something that Annie can completely throw herself into, despite the machinations of Helen, the rich wife of Dougie’s boss, who is trying to worm herself into best friend position over Annie. Dougie’s sister Megan is a firecracker of a gal, built like a fireplug, and her willingness to take on extreme physical, slapstick style comedy marks her as an heiress to the Lucille Ball school for comediennes. The only character traits left over for the other two bridesmaids are sweetness (Becca) and saltiness (Rita), so that is pretty much the only development their characters get.
Annie’s attempts fail miserably almost from the beginning, when a bridesmaids luncheon turns into a smorgasbord of food poisoning in a chic bridal shop, and the totally appropriate shower she plans for Lillian is immediately thwarted by Helen’s more grandiose ideas, and so the ladies take off for Vegas. Annie ends up sitting in coach by herself, and her attempts to get to Lillian and friends in first class show what a brilliant comic Wiig is. She gives such pathos and lunacy to a single line of dialogue “Help me, I’m poor”, that it made me laugh myself into tears.
Unfortunately, the Vegas part of the story ends quickly (thanks to Annie), and this is where we delve into familiar chick flick territory: there are incidents involving Annie’s completely worthless ‘boyfriend’, a quirky cop that has a crush on her, misunderstandings and hurt feelings between old friends Annie and Lillian, and finally a beautiful wedding that has everything including a cameo by the ultimate early 90’s pop divas, Wilson Phillips. “Bridesmaids” was funny, but never as funny as I wanted it to be. Wiig gave it a valiant effort, but her talents as a performer were outdone by her shortcomings as a writer.
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