Two things you’ll find out watching it(if you haven’t already): women can be funny and that words like “I hate you” don’t and shouldn’t always decide relationships.
Owner of Cake Baby-a failed bakery enterprise- Annie(Kristen Wiig) is a single woman in 30s who is low on money, feels unfulfilled in sexual relationships and finds her home to be not-home(one of the co-tenants doesn’t pay rent and has no qualms about reading her diary because she’s not put up a notice saying that is a no-no!). As a consequence, she feels so low that as shop assistant she can tell customers who come to buy an engagement ring that marriage may not work out and drive them away. Lillian(Maya Rudolph), her best friend since childhood is one bright spot in her otherwise dark life. Now Lillian is getting married, preparations for the wedding are underway and the bridesmaids are on the scene. Annie presumes that she is the chief bridesmaid.
Unfortunately for Annie, she is elbowed out of the wedding preparations and even out of the wedding by Helen(Rose Byrne), a recent friend of her best friend. Her own contribution in terms of mistakes and some destructive expression of her frustration also creates a wall between the two friends. In between all this, there is a collection of fellow bridesmaids: Lillian’s sardonic cousin Rita(Wendi McLendon-Covey), idealistic friend, Becca(Ellie Kemper), and ribald and obese future sister-in-law, Megan(Melissa McCarthy).
These girls are something! Their antics are as supportive to the story and the character of Annie as was the supporting cast in Rachel Getting Married. Although the focus of the story is Annie and the movie carries largely her perspective, the other bridesmaids make an appealing, raunchy presence in the movie, thereby justifying the title, Bridesmaids. *The title is also justified because the plot balances on the working up of the rivalry between Annie and Helen, the two main bridesmaids.
Another new addition in Annie’s life comes off the road: Officer Nathan Rhodes(Chris O’Dowd) by whom Annie is pulled over for having broken taillights. This charming cop with some subtle sense of humor used to like Annie’s bakery products and does try to motivate Annie to start it again.
Unfortunately, the ouster from the best friend’s wedding(and understandably, her life too) gravitates Annie to another bottom—before which her mother had given her the pep talk that she’d hit rock bottom and now there was only the way up. Loss of job( after telling a customer, "You are a little cunt!", eviction from her rented apartment, and estranged from her best friend, Annie, unsure of things, grows cold to the budding romance between her and Nathan. A couple more dark experiences make Annie coop up in her mother’s house.
At this point in her life comes Megan, the seemingly coarse woman, and she gives her some hard, rousing talk. Annie realizes her mistakes. Sun starts shining. Things turn over…It’s a comedy, guys.
Kristen Wiig is one of the screenplay writer and the lead actor too. Her acting shows emotions, vulnerability, hurt, frustration, and confusion very well. The other characters are well-placed and well-developed too. They play their part well and go, leaving the focus on Annie. There is emotion in the movie but it is not carried over to the extent of over-sentimentalizing.
Not really any slapstick humor in the movie. The rivalries and jealousies involve quite some ironical and sarcastic dialogues. Some amount of laid-back humor, such as of the cop boyfriend, Nathan is there. There are some scenes of boisterous humor too. Some episodes are worth mentioning: at the engagement party, Annie and Helen both try to hog the limelight and show themselves closer to Lillian by mushy talk, speaking Thai and Spanish, and even singing; the dress selection episode when the food poisoning results in all the girls puking and shitting, with Lillian shitting in the middle of the street with her bridal gown on; when the girls are going on a flight to Las Vegas and then how they talk about their anxieties, interests, etc. Some talk about sex, some about how the plane will never reach its destination, one woman pushing her detective stuff down the unwilling ears of her co-passenger she feels convinced is an air marshal…Another is when Annie is trying get the attention of her sulking cop boyfriend by driving in all the possible law-breaking ways, even driving topless.
You can find some sex here. Quite some talk about sex and not having enough sex too.
There are no really philosophical issues in *Bridesmaids, only issues of human relationships like love, estrangement, doubts, miscommunication, etc in the movie. But they all have been worked out with an easy pace. An enjoyable movie. There may be an Oscar for this one-best actress or supporting actress, I would guess, or maybe editing.