Yes, No, Maybe So: "Bridesmaids"

Serious Film's Michael C. here for this episode of Yes, No, Maybe So wherein we make a snap judgment on BRIDESMAIDS, Hollywood’s attempt to give female audiences a Hangover of their very own.

Women certainly have some balance coming to them. In road trip comedies they’re usually lucky to get the role of the humorless, castrating wife/girlfriend. If they’re not lucky they play the stripper, who in Vegas films stands a decent chance of ending up in a shallow grave in the desert. 

Bridesmaids also represents star/co-writer Kristen Wiig’s stab at big screen stardom because she can’t go on forever being SNL’s last line of defense against total un-watchability, and God knows MacGruber didn’t do it for her. Simply put Wiig is appointed Maid of Honor by Maya Rudolph making her responsible for sending her friend off in style, which in this case entails rounding up her colorful band of bridesmaids to go to Vegas for a bachelorette party. ROAD TRIP!!!

The main draw here is clearly the cast, which is one big bag of “Yes!” I can’t spot a weak link. In addition to Wiig there is Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, and The Office’s Ellie Kemper, who couldn’t be more adorable if she was manufactured by Hello Kitty. I’m especially pleased to see Reno 911’s stellar Wendi Mclendon Covey get such a high profile gig. Her reactions to Kemper’s “princess theme” and McCarthy’s “female fight club” ideas are the funniest part of the trailer. Another reason to be psyched: it is directed by Midas Touch TV director Paul Feig. His credits read like a roll call of the greatest shows of the last decade, Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, Mad Men, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock. I feel obligated to buy a ticket out of gratitude alone. 

I have long-standing rule of avoiding movies that have trailers in which curse words are replaced by sound effects so that’s strike one there. On a more substantive note, the movie looks like it leans pretty heavily on broadly drawn types – the jaded one, the ditz, the butch one. Also, is it too much too ask that women get one movie that doesn’t center on a wedding? Seriously, if you went by Hollywood comedies you would think single women do nothing with their evenings but tip back glasses of white wine in order to stave off thoughts of suicide because all their friends are getting married to orthodontists and cranking out horrible children. I’m offended on your behalf, ladies.

Of course, there is a good chance Wiig is as annoyed as I am with the culture's wedding obsession and is dragging the material out in order to give it the send up it richly deserves. It’s so hard to tell with trailers. That fact that this one is a few notches shy of uproarious could be a sign that it showed only the most trailer-friendly, punched-by-Mike-Tyson type jokes instead of funnier character beats. It could also be a sign that the better jokes simply aren’t there. I’m pretty on the fence about this one.

Oh, wait…Is that Jon Hamm there at the end? Okay, I’m in. What can I say? I think he is a comic genius trapped in a Rock Hudson body. Poor guy. What say you? You would think this collection of talent would have to do something worth checking out, but then that's what I said before I sat through Date Night.