Similar to the comedies focused on male audiences like Due Date and The Hangover, the movie Bridesmaids extends the raunchy comedy growing in popularity by the male comedies in 2010 while intertwining humor that is engaging to female audiences. Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig makes her actress leading debut as Annie, the hard on her luck maid of honor for her best friend Lillian’s wedding-played by another SNL cast member Maya Rudolph.
From stealing free workouts in the park to responding to late night calls from a man desiring only to see her at night and not in the morning (played by Jon Hamm which many women may also decide to commit the same shameful act after viewing the sexy Hamm), Annie becomes encumbered with her lack of money and keeping up with her childhood friend’s much more affluent bridesmaids. Helen (Rose Byrne) is one of Lillian’s new wealthier friends who is fiercely competing to overtake Annie’s role as maid of honor. Joining Helen as bridesmaids is Rita (Wendi McClenton-Covey) a long-wedded, drowning in a household of males, wife and mother deprived of female companionship. Becca (Ellie Kemper) is the newly wedded, naïve bridesmaid that is getting a crash course on the realities of marriage by Rita. Megan (Melissa McCarthy) exudes a not so feminine woman, taking more of her fair share of complementary puppies at the bridal shower and displaying the uncomfortable elements of being prim and proper when a size 4 barely fits on her foot.
In a passive aggressive battle, Annie fiercely battles to maintain her status as maid of honor overwhelmed by all the expenses of such an honor while Helen flaunts her aptitude for planning and affording the expected, with some embellishment, duties of the maid of honor. With one of the longest lasting toasts at the wedding shower from Annie and Helen, the competition breaks out into a singing contest as they strive to capture Lillian’s attention. From food poisoning to Las Vegas, Annie and Helen are in a no-holds bar skirmish to be the ultimate maid of honor with the other bridesmaids caught between the clash.
As with any female comedy, a little romance is tied into story. The Scottish accented cop (Chris O’Dowd) is the too nice male companion that Annie tries to turn away, determining him as an intrusion into her life and initially citing him as too good for the rest of her current downtrodden existence.
Whether it is for a girl’s night out or a date where the men can also find the humor, Bridesmaids is guaranteed to make people with or without a Y-chromosome to laugh throughout the bizarre gathering of the not so ideal bridesmaids.
Sources
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478338/
http://www.bridesmaidsmovie.com/index.php
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/movies/bridesmaids-with-kristen-wiig-maya-rudolph-review.html