Paragraph Movie Reviews: Bridesmaids

If you don't have plans to see this movie, you can check the spoilers here and then come back.

Thoroughly underwhelming. The way this movie was hyped, I was expecting to be busting a gut laughing for over two hours, but instead it was an ok flick with a few standout bits performances but a disjointed flow and fumbles on the emotional payoffs. I don't overly fault Kristen Wiig the performer, as she was funnier and displayed more dimension here than she has in several years on Saturday Night Live, but she still seemed to panic and fall into her stock characters more than I would have liked. I do blame Wiig the co-writer as the story lurches without a through line essentially from skit to skit as--to be fair--most of this genre of comedy does nowadays, but the success ratio of said bits isn't strong enough to justify it. The airplane sequence, for instance, is hysterical, but the dress scene is cheap gross out humor (and no, I would not have liked it if it was dudes; I never dig that stuff personally) and I couldn't name you much else from memory. The rivalry between Wiig and Rose Byrne wears thin really quickly and drags the plot down around it while Wiig's friendship with Maya Rudolph, the other big emotional centerpiece, is uneven, blowing up and repairing without much rhyme or reason. However, there's still a lot to like about Bridesmaids, in large part from the well-cast supporting players. Melissa McCarthy is the best part of the movie, the only thing that lived up to the hype for me, throwing herself into her role completely and making you wish she got more screen time. Chris O'Dowd totally won me over after a slow start and his courtship with Wiig is the truest thing about the entire movie. Jon Hamm proved once again he is hilarious, while bit players Rebel Wilson and Matt Lucas stole every scene they were in. But the most pleasant surprise? The late Jill Clayburgh turning in a quietly funny and heartfelt performance as Wiig's mother in what I believe was her final role. So yeah, if you watch the highlight reel, Bridesmaids isn't bad, but as long as it runs, there's way too much dead air and "huh?" moments for it to come anywhere close to being the comedy it was sold to me as.