Bridesmaidzilla Vs Bambi

Bridesmaids Straps One On
Review by Tony Freitas 

Bridesmaids ain't a chickflick. It's a dickflick with a strap-on. The women of Bridesmaids shit. They fart and burp and fantasize about balls in their face. The women of Bridesmaids also fantasize about the imagined bliss of being married or the imagined bliss of being single. And they love the challenge of planning a wedding. Bridesmaids is wedding planning as extreme sport on par with male Superbowl frenzy. There's the churrascaria cha chas relay, the bridesmaid's dresses decathlon and the agony and defeat of the bridal shower showdown. And while I'm stuck on this flimsy sports analogy, Bridesmaids just may be the Superbowl film of recent wedding features. And the supposed most valuable player in the sport of film nuptials, Kate Hudson, is nowhere to be found. Kate who? 

Bridesmaids ain't a chickflick. It's a dickflick with a strap-on.

Annie Walker (Kristen Wiig) is a hot female mess of love and bubbling resentments that, despite her best efforts, erupt to the surface and flow like destructive lava when best-friend-since-childhood Lillian (Maya Rudolph) asks Annie to be her Maid of Honor. Annie's personal life is in a disastrous tailspin after her bakery business fails and her relationship becomes collateral damage.  Entrenched in a sexually sizzling but emotionally barren fuck buddy arrangement with Ted, (funny and casually cruel Jon Hamm) Annie's esteem is in the gutter and her heart is in the ICU. Nothing better than her best friend's unbridled joy to make her feel even shittier. And the shittier Annie feels the more we identify... and laugh.

Maybe you've heard about the gross out antics of Bridesmaids. Sure, it's often hysterical and filthy -- in the best possible way -- but Bridesmaids seems to have something else entirely on its mind. The gross out stuff is just to get you in the seat so the film can make oodles of dough. The true potency and strength of the film lies in the relationships between the women. Annie and Lillian's relationship rings true as do the petty jealousies and recriminations. Wigg is a talented comedian. Though I'm not crazy about some of her SNL characterizations --  Please no more of the birth defected singing Dooneese -- here she underplays and a warmth develops that replaces the one note sarcasm she's known for in other roles. Sure there's sarcasm here as well, but it's not casual sarcasm thrown out for easy laughs. It's real world sarcasm that is part and parcel of a close life-long friendship. And while some of Annie's pre-wedding antics seem extreme, they come from a place of love (I suppose that's also been a defense for every other murder committed). 


Bridesmaids doesn't avoid cliche's, it dresses them up in pink taffeta and parades a float down main street: Marriage is the be all and end all. A man can make a woman's life complete. Fat women are over-sexed man-eating sharks (what's wrong with that anyway). But what's missing from Bridesmaids is important as well. The cliche' of women as natural born enemies, of women as victims. Some of Bridemaid's characters might not know what's good for them, but they are the masters of their own domain. Bridesmaids also does a nice bit of humanizing Lillian's other close friend Helen (Rose Byrne). What could have been a stock movie rich bitch is instead an insecure control freak (with stepchildren that hate her) who has her heart in the right place. Wiigs interactions with Byrne rival those with Rudolph for humor and pathos. Pathos? Yes. But the references to bodily fluids still abound if you were worried. 

There's been heavy social critique of Bridesmaids in the past few weeks. What Bridesmaids means to Hollywood. How it will pave the way for more female driven films. How it could turn the red light to green for femme films that have been on pause or stalled in the pipeline.  What it means to feminists and the divided camp of funny/not so funny. Feminist film? Feminist failure?  That's a ton of weight on Bridesmaid's delicate shoulders. One impact you can expect is a slew of poorly made female buddy comedies in the next year and a half. Maybe there'll be a gem in the steaming pile that is sure to come. Hollywood loves a winner... after the fact. 


Ultimately, Bridesmaids is no feminist manifesto nor does it set back women's rights 100 years. It's funny and warm and unapologetic. It doesn't care what your politics are and doesn't play to either side. It is what it is like it or not. Shut up and move on. If it's not what you want it to be, maybe that's what the film makers intended. And Nikki Fink... Please keep your word and leave Hollywood. You DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! Maybe you and Rex Reed can team up.