Bridesmaids

I saw Bridesmaids. It was good.

Why can't it just be that simple? Why is the reaction to the first statement so similar to the reaction at the admission of an embarrassing secret?

I did something Saturday night/Sunday morning, which had it been any other time I probably would not have done, which is post a reply to a comment on an internet message board. A poster had made some snarky, banal little joke about the type of people who went to see Bridesmaids, and because I had heard much the same from my own male friends, and as I said, because it was about 2:00am, I sort of lost it. There was excess use of profanity, and heavy sarcasm. I'm not proud.

But really, I'm getting crap in 2011 for seeing a funny movie, just because it features a mainly female cast? Is the idea here that, even at this late date, nothing that comes from the female perspective can hold any value at all as an entertainment for men? Even after 30 Rock?

Bridesmaids is not a great movie, but for most of it's 2-hours-plus running time it is a very funny one. The story is sporadically compelling, though I got the feeling that a lot of expository material may have been cut, left to the extended scenes menu on the DVD. (The subplot involving Wendi McLendon-Lovey and Ellie Kemper from The Office absolutely needed a third scene to resolve it.)

Kristen Wiig, whom I find only occasionally amusing on SNL, delivers an outstanding performance, using a plethora of facial expressions to convey her character's many emotional swings. It's an honest performance that lifts the comedic aspects of Annie's struggle to further heights.

Is it that committment to emotional realism that will keep this movie from reaching through to traditional male audiences? I hope not. I didn't see too much gender-oriented in the story of a friendship being tested by time and new class distinctions. Well, I doubt two male friends would reconnect to the strands of Wilson-Philipps, but other than that...

Bridesmaids is a well-acted movie with great set pieces, including a surely soon-to-be-notorious bathroom scene (some chick flick, this) and a chaotic scene on a plane mid-flight that just keeps going and going without losing steam. At times, the transistions between these set pieces feel underdeveloped, and a few storylines seem to have been forgotten midway through the film, but if you go see Bridesmaids, you will laugh. A lot. No matter what chromosomes you may possess.