Bridesmaids Review

Let me start off by telling you everything that Bridesmaids is not. It is not a chick flick. It is not The Hangover with women. It is not your usual comedy.

Bridesmaids is quite the raunchy comedy, in fact. And while I know that raunchy has become standard in modern comedies, it is the simple quality that the entire main cast is made up of women that set it apart from the rest.

When you think raunchy, you think of Will Ferrel and the rest of the Frat Pack acting stupid and making jokes about human excrement. Bridemaids is like that, but replace Will Ferrel with Kristen Wiig (MacGruber) and the Frat Pack with, well, its equivalent in sorority form. The best description I can give is that it's a bromance film with women.

The film follows Wiig's character Annie Walker as she acts as the Maid of Honor to Maya Rudolph's ("Saturday Night Live") Lillian. Enter Rose Byrne ("Damages") as Annie's rival Helen and we have our story. The rest of the brides maids are made up of Wendy McLendon-Covey ("Reno 911"), Ellie Kemper ("The Office") and Melissa McCarthy ("Samantha Who?").

After Lillian picks Annie to be her Maid of Honor, Helen does everything she can to upstage her new rival because she feels that the Honor should have fallen to her. This is where many of the film's comedic situations arise. There is a scene where all of the brides maids get Brazilian food, at the request of Annie, and all but Helen get food poisoning. Other situations arise on the plane to Las Vegas and at the bridal shower.

The overall theme of the film is about Annie eventually coming to terms with her pathetic life and realizing that the only person who can change that is herself. Again, comedy ensues.

There is also a romantic subplot (which is where people might get the chick-flicky vibe) involving Annie and a cop who pulls her over played by Chris O'Dowd (Pirate Radio). Remember, this is just a subplot that acts as filler and a reason for Annie to overcome her feelings of insignificance. The other half of this portion of the story involves "Mad Men's" Jon Hamm.

Helmed by Paul Feig (the man behind the short-lived "Freaks & Geeks"), there is hardly a quiet moment in this film. He and writers Wiig & Annie Mumolo attempt to create laughter out of almost every line, and they nearly succeed. I found it hard to stop laughing many times.

Overall, Bridesmaids is as funny as comedies go. It doesn't pretend to be anything it's not and actually uses that knowledge to work in its favor. Truth be told it's much funnier than The Hangover and most of the work Will Ferrel has done. If anything it reaffirms what we as a society have known for years: fat people are funny.

Bridesmaids - 3.5/5 stars

The Rough Cut