032. Bridesmaids

032. (26 Jan) /Bridesmaids/ (2011, Paul Feig) 59



Watching Bridesmaids back knowing its screenplay is Oscar-nominated makes it apparent just how weak the writing is. Exposition and transitions could scarcely be clumsier. The film is funny regardless and there's some genuinely good dialogue in the scenes between Wiig and O'Dowd, but it's a bizarre Oscar nominee when they usually look toward strongly structured comedies like In Bruges. The McCarthy nomination is less objectionable than I initially thought, though it is indefensible.

INSIDIOUS

Written by Leigh Wannell

Directed by James Wan

Starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and Barbra Hershey

I hate to be the guy who does this but as I had to look it up before watching the movie, I feel justified in saying that if you look up “insidious” in the dictionary, you will learn that it means proceeding in a gradual, subtle way but with harmful effects. And so INSIDIOUS, director James Wan’s first hit since he exploded in blood-soaked glory onto the horror scene with SAW in 2004, is aptly named. Wan slowly draws you into his hyper-stylized haunted house and those harmful effects I mentioned, they begin to take hold.

The trouble with paranormal based horror films is that their build is usually intense and potentially brilliant but their reveal is ordinarily ridiculous. INSIDIOUS begins with great promise. The low lighting, bizarre imagery and frighteningly sharp score pull you into the nervous energy that permeates the walls of the house in question. A new family has just moved in and the lack of familiarity itself is a device to cause more anxiety in the characters. Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne play parents to young Dalton (Ty Simpkins), who has seemingly fallen into a coma after a mysterious experience in the attic. As it turns out though, it is Dalton, and not the house, that is haunted and unfortunately, the means with which Dalton’s rescue is orchestrated, which I will not spoil for you here, change the tone of the film so greatly that the subtlety required for it to live up to its name is all but lost completely.

That said, just because I wasn’t convinced does not mean that many believers out there will not be fully taken with INSIDIOUS. When it comes to the paranormal, you either believe or you don’t and it should be the filmmaker’s job to change the mind of even the most ardent of non-believer. While that didn’t happen for me here, I can say that the film gave me chills on more than one occasion. In fact, I had to distract myself when watching, which could mean that I’m not at all interested but in this case, it just meant that I was too scared to look.

BRIDESMAIDS

Written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo

Directed by Paul Feig

Starring Kriten Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd and Jon Hamm

Megan: You're your problem and you're also your solution.

For years now, the boys have been yukking it up at the movies for our enjoyment and they have been doing it as crassly as humanly possible. These male bonding pictures have relegated the girls to the background as nagging wives, naïve love interests and/or sexual throwaway characters. Well, not anymore. In BRIDESMAIDS, Kristen Wiig and her gaggle of gal pals kick the buddy genre hard in the nuts to prove that anything the boys can do, they can do better, and more often than not, in more gross a fashion. Girls being girls though, they are sure to bring a little heart to the table too.

Wiig, a co-writer on the project, is Annie, a single girl who is not at the best juncture in her life. Her bakery business fell flat; she has to live with the most irksome roommates imaginable (Matt Lucas and Rebel Wilson); and she has seemingly lost all faith that her prince will one day come, accepting instead to fall into the bed of man with whom she clearly has no future (Jon Hamm). Now, while she can certainly do worst than Hamm as far as friends with benefits go, her declining stock hits a new low when her oldest friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph, herself an old friend from Saturday Night Live), announces her engagement. Ordinarily this would be a joyous occasion but when you’re aging and single and your oldest partner in crime is leaving you to fend for yourself in the desolate desert that is dating, news like that takes on much grander implications.

Annie proceeds to buckle and break down amidst the pressure of putting together the perfect bridal parties and the prospect of losing her best friend to the other side. Fortunately, Wiig negotiates a meltdown like no other and she does so in BRIDSEMAIDS with great care, allowing viewers to truly see how complex a person can get the longer they are subjected to the games single people play. Of course, she is also backed up by a hilarious ensemble, most notably Rose Byrne as a classic “frenemy” and Melissa McCarthy as a big girl who isn’t afraid to cry (or take a dump in a sink for that matter). And while I was mildly disappointed to see the film affirm that true happiness cannot be achieved on one’s own, I was too busy laughing hysterically to care.