Bridesmaids: MSN Review

By: Ed Holden

Forget all the talk about ‘The female hangover’. Bridesmaids is its own beast and hilarious in a different way.

Without the benefit of US comedy staple Saturday Night Live, the British audience can be forgiven for knowing little of Kristen Wiig. We're also fairly unfamiliar with the increasingly popular stateside prefix 'hella', meaning 'very'. We should know about both. Kristen Wiig is hellafunny.

She starts out in bed with Jon Hamm. The Mad Men star is really only there to fuel her misery, playing an egomaniac who uses her shamelessly. She's immediately funny though, carrying the nagging desperation of being thirty-something and single on her brow. She's teetering on the edge of panic; to brilliant effect.

As if things weren't difficult enough, she's now her best friend's maid of honour. She has to organise everything and satisfy a bizarre mix of best friend's friends, lead by Rose Byrne's impossible yuppie. The gaggle of 'hens' is formed and they're a marvelous ensemble. For our hero, it's a tipping point that pushes her close to collapse.

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But not before we've had a lot of fun with the gals. It mixes sharp observations with full-blown physical comedy and a healthy dose of vulgarity. The Judd Apatow formula is there and the comedy mogul was involved in hands-on role alongside director Paul Feig. But Bridesmaids has its own voice and it's that of Wiig, who co-wrote the script with Annie Mumolo.

Melissa McArthy emerges as something of a standout, playing a tomboy who votes for a 'female fight club' bachelorette party and tries to get laid ("Wanna go in that restroom and not rest?") on the disastrous plane journey to Vegas which, pleasingly, never makes it to The Hangover's stomping ground.

You don't need to look far past the trailer to know how funny McArthy is. But spare some Kudos for Maya Rudolph (The bride wins our best soiling-yourself scene of the year award) and Chris O'Dowd who plays the eccentric Irish cop we all want to sit and have a beer with as well as demonstrating some real chemistry with Wiig. Ellie Kemper and Wendi McLendon-Covey's pleasing double act rounds out the ensemble nicely.

Though it's pitched at the younger female audience, invites are not only extended to readers of Grazia magazine. Bridesmaids lives alongside Superbad and 40-Year-Old Virgin at the top of the Apatow-produced comedy tree. There are laughs here for everyone.

Bridesmaids: MSN Review

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