OK. OK, women. Now I’m just speaking to the women here. No men. Just females … I gotta ask. Just asking – when you indulge your boyfriend, husband, beau, whatever and go to one of those Jackass films, and you see something truly vile on screen like feces flying all over the place in 3D … do you ever say to yourself, “Gee, this would be funny if only there were women here instead of men”? Of course you don’t. It’s silly. Blue humor is blue humor. So why is a fiesta of vomit and diarrhea in wedding dresses any superior in scale to the Jackass realm? Men, stay out of this. You have your own lame issues. I shouldn’t have to say anything more than: “The Waterboy.” The “food poisoning” scene in Bridesmaids? Not even the most cringe-worthy in the film, which means of course that Bridesmaids contains the two most cringe-worthy scenes in all of film, 2011. Congratulations.
Bridesmaids, a huge box office success, follows a long tradition of movies modern women flocked to in droves for no apparent reason. Others include Ghost, Grease, Dirty Dancing and The Blue Lagoon. Truth be told I enjoyed Bridesmaids much more than any of those others; still, I’m at a loss. Bridesmaids narrates the shitty life of Annie (Kristen Wiig), all set to be the Maid of Honor at the wedding of best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). The film focuses on two relationships, one which will strike a chord – 
the rivalry between Annie and Maid-of-Honor-Wannabe Helen (Rose Byrne) and one that generally won’t – a love story between Annie and nice guy cop Nathan (Chris O’Dowd). Does it matter that I hated the rivalry and enjoyed the love story? Probably not.
Annie is a train wreck. Kristen Wiig, who doesn’t get a lot of praise for her comic abilities, deserves much credit here for writing and acting a very real character. I loved how Bridesmaids didn’t sugar-coat her bad decision making. Another film might have painted her in a more sympathetic light. Bridesmaids says, essentially, “you have no money because you’re a f***up at work … you alienate people out of jealousy … your relationships suck because you don’t read people well.” This is the part I really loved, a comic film with a touch of honesty. Audiences have and will enjoy the hyperbolic throat-ripping between rivals. Gotta love a wedding shower invitation that comes with a live butterfly. It’s possible I liked Bridemaids more than I let on. Psst, keep it to yourself.
Everybody out there – this is a film you probably need to see, whether or not you’ll like it, just so you’ll know what other people are talking about.
Rated R, 125 Minutes
D: Paul Feig
W: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo
Genre: Estrogen indulgence
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Women who make big deals out of weddings. In other words, women.
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Have you a Y-chromosome?
Edit: It is 13 years since this film was made and it is clearly a classic. I was wrong to imply mediocrity. Bridesmaids is an absolute blast.
