Bridesmaids Review

• 17th Jun 2011

Annie (Kristen Wiig, SNL, Bored To Death) is miserable. She’s recently lost her bakery business and her boyfriend. And now her life-long best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph, SNL) is getting married. Annie is delighted when Lillian asks her to be maid of honour until she realises how much organisation she’ll have to do and how expensive and stressful pre-wedding rituals can be. Things go from bad to worse when she finds herself competing for Lillian’s affections with the beautiful, spoilt, best-friend stealing Helen (Rose Bryne, Damages, Insidious). So begins the journey through hen weekends, dress shopping, bridal showers and one-upmanship with the most bizarre group of bridesmaids imaginable.

This film has been compared to The Hangover and it’s not a bad comparison, if a little lazy. It does have the trademarks of many Apatow productions, a wide-ranging cast, improvisation, etc but it’s unfair to simply call this film “The Hangover for women”.   With likeable characters and big laughs Bridesmaids manages to address the nuances of female friendship and relationships without turning into a romantic comedy, the genre most films with a female heavy cast tend to find themselves falling into.

Wiig is endearing, sympathetic and very funny as the films protagonist Annie. Bryne proves herself a surprisingly good comedic actress, this film giving her a chance to break away from her usual po-faced roles, and the ever-gorgeous John Hamm (Mad Men) delivers a star turn as a wealthy douche. However, the show is stolen by Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls) as the butch and bolshie Megan, one of Lillian’s bridesmaids. As with many of Apatow’s films the majority of the cast won’t be instantly recognisable to British audiences, but this film doesn’t need star power and will no doubt make Wiig a household name.

If there are any criticisms it’s that it’s a little slow in places and at just over two hours long it can feel a little drawn out. There’s a wide range of characters, most of which are brilliant, but some of them tend to feel pointless, for example, Annie’s irritating sibling flatmates serve neither plot nor much humour.

Bridesmaids has plenty of big laughs, from cringe-worthy, competitive engagement party speeches to a very amusing, if unsuccessful, plane journey to Las Vegas. It’s hard to pick one standout scene as there are so many, but it’s fair to say most of the big laughs centre on Megan. Where the Sex and the City films failed Bridesmaids triumphs – you’ll leave the cinema with a smile on your face and a Wilson-Phillips song in your heart!

Lindsay Emerson