When I saw the trailer for Bridesmaids, I expected to see a female version of the buddy comedy and watch a rag-tag group of misfits struggle through the planning of a wedding and have wacky misadventures along the way.
Instead, I watched a movie about a down-on-her-luck woman struggle with her rather pathetic life while serving as her best friend’s maid of honor.
It was a different movie than I expected, and one that I enjoyed for the most part. More than anything, I appreciated that the movie was clearly written by women who value other women. Not knowing much about the movie except for what was presented in the trailer, I expected to see Kristen Wiig’s character (Annie Walker) fall into a tizzy because her best friend was getting married and she was (presumably) the only single bridesmaid in the wedding party. As it turns out, singlehood was the least of Annie’s problems. Yes, she was in the middle of a dehumanizing fling with Jon Hamm (playing a handsome but amusingly toolish character), but only because the rest of her life was in shambles (her pastry business fell apart and her current job was horrible).
As it turned out, the main conflict in the movie was Annie vs. her low sense of self-worth, as well as her rivalry with Helen (Rose Byrne). And, to my pleasant surprise, Annie and Helen don’t fight over a man, or money, or social status. Both of them want to be the best friend to Lillian (Maya Rudolph). Annie needs Lillian’s friendship during this rough patch, and Helen needs a close female friend, period. Because the movie is told from Annie’s point of view, we don’t see Helen in a sympathetic light for a long time, but her redemption in the end is well-earned. In one of the final scenes, where (spoiler alert!) Helen and Annie find common ground, I kept waiting for the punchline, expecting a crude joke to interrupt a nice moment…and it never came. They express sincere appreciation for each other, and the audience gets the sense that maybe, just maybe, they’ll actually become friends.
I’ve been in their position before. I watched Annie seethe with jealousy and I cringed because I remembered how that felt. During the unhappiest times of my life, when I needed my girlfriends more than anything, I resented my best friends’ other friends. Those emotions aren’t pretty, but they’re real, and I was happy to see the movie explore those feelings with a nice mix of humor and pathos. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph have believable chemistry as lifelong best friends, and Wiig and Rose Byrne hit all the beats of their developing relationship very nicely.
And since I’m on the subject of female friendships, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Melissa McCarthy’s character, Megan.
Megan is the Fat Girl of the bridesmaids, and the writing delved into the Fat Girl stereotype too many times: She’s aggressive! She makes loud bodily functions and can’t tell whether she burped or farted! She’s sexually aggressive and involves food in her foreplay! (Of course she does.)
But even though the writers (Wiig and Annie Mumolo) wrote a few too many potty-humor jokes for my taste, I left the movie with an an overall positive impression of Megan. She’s confident and goes for what she wants when she wants it. She’s also good at her job, unapologetic about who she is, and a good friend who knocks some sense into Annie when she’s reached an annoying, self-indulgent, whiny phase. She’s the least conventionally attractive of the main cast of women, yet she’s the boldest and most self-assured. She’s also pretty damn funny and takes too many party favors from the bridal shower just because she can.
The movie wasn’t perfect. There was a little too much gross-out humor, and there wasn’t enough for Wendi McLendon-Clovey and Ellie Kemper to do. But the focus on women’s friendship was strong, I’m always happy to see Chris O’Dowd from The IT Crowd get work, and there were plenty of laughs that didn’t resort to cheap jokes. I’m glad I saw it and I hope to see more movies like this in the future.
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I’m torn as to whether I want to see this movie. On one hand, I think it’s important to support a major film release written by and starring women, especially if, as you say, the women are allowed to be friends with each other; otoh, gross-out humor is so not my cup of tea. (Vomit is my particular bugbear – having battled severe motion sickness my entire life, I tend to get enraged when movies expect me to laugh at someone vomiting.)
Ooh, then you definitely won’t like the scene when they all try on bridesmaids’ dresses. They all get food poisoning from the lunch they ate beforehand and there’s a lot of vomit. But, I think the movie is good enough that you can duck out during that scene and come back five minutes later.
All humans thrive when immersed in rich, rewarding relationships with loving friends and partners. All the main characters in Bridesmaids seek both of these kinds of intimate relationships. So, in that light, I agree that the movie sends a postive message. But whether that message is feminist is open to question.
The women find common ground among themselves, yes, and late in the film patch up differences that had caused them pain earlier on. Still, most are in unfullfilling relationships with their husbands or boyfriends, failures which depress them and compromise their sense of self worth.
I’m not one to insist that a film, play, book, or opera must espouse a message; in fact, the best artistic endeavors do not, or do not in an obvious manner. So I liked Bridesmaids for its performances, writing, and, yes, some of its broad physical humor. (Where would we be without a fart joke to keep us humble?) But I don’t think it’s message–if it has one–fits into any prescribed feminist or anti-feminist category.
I’m glad you raised the question,however.
something like this is well overdue showing the dynamic character of women-
but its ashame the media only gives either a male view, or female view.
but it yet has to show how males and females can both shows their views, and that its ok to mix with the opposite sex without dominance or any hint of homosexuality
the media does not reflect reality
im a guy
I really enjoyed all of the characters – from the newly wed young lady to the fat character. I identified with all of them in some way. i especially appreciated the woman who was married with several sons who would talk back vulgarly to her. This is exactly what being the parent of a teenage boy is like. Obviously who ever wrote this has a foul mouth teen age son just like me. And I LOVE VEGAS so I understand why this would be the place they would all want to go. And I loved that no one, not even Helen, was a mean person. In fact everyone was nice. And of course, I feel for the wonderful accented cop. Great movie. My son and his friends just watched it with me at home and really enjoyed it. I watched it at the movies when it first came out. It’s like a female hangover movie clearly written by women.