Kristen Wiig is the funniest woman in the movies today, and one of the best character actors too. Such has long been the position of a number of critics, and her breakout comedy “Bridesmaids,” which she co-wrote, definitively proves it.
Wiig is a real trooper. She simply knows how to be funny and make anyone laugh, not just women. Her film, and yes, this is her film even though Judd Apatow produced it, knows how to be goofy, silly, smart, stupid, raunchy, vulgar and even heartfelt. It finds the perfect middle ground between bad chick flick and offensive bromance.
What “Bridesmaids” is not is “Sex and the City” at a wedding. Wiig’s Annie is a kind-hearted woman with a protective instinct and a competitive edge, especially when it comes to her childhood best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). She differs from the bitchy and gossiping foursome on HBO’s hit show with a disdain for men, other women and children. She just shows an inherently believable female instinct to preserve her friendship in an awkward, yet civil manner.
Her friendship with Lillian is threatened when Lillian gets engaged and a rich and organized work friend of Lillian’s, Helen (Rose Byrne), tries to move in as Lillian’s maid of honor.
I think the key to these characters’ broad comic appeal, and one reflected in Annie’s character as well, is that Helen is not an outright awful person, and Annie is no saint. These characters are richly drawn and their interactions as legitimate friends and acquaintances ring true.
And their aims to be civil and sweet and loving toward the bride are tested in some delightfully outrageous set pieces, each more enjoyable than the last. Wiig shows excellent range in these moments, displaying a confident yet awkward poise when trading engagement party toasts with Byrne, then goofily expressing herself in a drunken outing on a plane and finally losing it all together at an extravagant bridal shower by destroying a massive cookie dedicated to the loving couple.
But Wiig and her partner Annie Mumolo have also written her supporting cast some wonderful dialogue and room to improvise. Like other Apatow comedies, an assortment of strange stock characters drop a few random yet memorable moments in wonderfully executed free flowing conversations. The best of the bunch is “Gilmore Girls’” Melissa McCarthy, the most capable of a vulgar sex or fart joke and scarily memorable in a terrific gross out food poisoning scene inside a wedding dress store.
Ranging from pop culture, slapstick, raunch and awkward, none of the comedy is exclusive to one gender. “Bridesmaids” is a marvelously well-written film that may drop men to the background (except for a hilarious and ironically uncredited Jon Hamm as Annie’s casual squeeze) but does not thrust women and their exclusive feminine bonds and problems to the forefront at the expense of men. The likeability of the characters and the great physical comedic chops by Wiig make the film universal.
It’s also just outrageously funny and the best comedy of 2011.
3 ½ stars
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