Bridesmaids

Review by Anthony Morris

Well known in the US for her work on sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, Kristen Wiig's first feature length starring role is a breath of fresh air down the musty male-dominated corridors of American big-screen comedy.

If you think that sounds a little harsh, clearly you haven’t seen The Hangover Part II or Your Highness, because both those films were scraping a rake over some very well-worn ground.

Here Wiig plays Annie, a down-on-her-luck type (her bakery business went bust, her flatmates are idiots, her current job sucks, you get the idea) who’s existence is thrown into chaos by landing the job of being her best friend’s bridesmaid.

Well, except that it becomes increasingly obvious that her life was already on the skids...

Despite being pushed hard as “a female Hangover” (and yes, there are loads of drunk / vomit jokes) in an attempt to avoid scaring off people who somehow haven’t had enough of The Hangover and it’s ilk, it’s the quieter, more thoughtful moments that really make this film work.

Wiig (who wrote the script) creates a lead who is surprisingly fragile in some areas, totally resilient in others and funny no matter what.

A romance with Chris O’Dowd (The I.T. Crowd) is charming, a friend-with-benefits deal with Jon Hamm (Mad Men) is hilarious, and her fellow bridesmaids are brilliantly funny (especially Rose Byrne & Melissa McCarthy).

It may be over-long, but who’s going to complain about too much of a good thing? 

This is easily a front-runner for funniest comedy of the year, and if it ushers in a new age of female-dominated comedies, so long as they’re this good no-one’s going to be complaining.

4  out of 5

Bridesmaids
Australian release: 16th June, 2011
Official Site: Bridesmaids
Cast: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Wendi Mclendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, Matt Lucas, Jill Clayburgh, Rebel Wilson, Michael Hitchcock
Director: Paul Feig