It started off strong, with a sex scene between Wiig and Mad Men’s Jon Hamm that felt like it belonged in the Apatow universe – where sex is usually awkward, unsatisfying, and ultimately hilarious (see 40-Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, Knocked Up) – but with a feminine twist. Wiig’s character wakes up early from her casual sex sleepover to beautify herself with make-up and crawl back in bed in time to look angelic for her f*ckbuddy. An obvious glimmer of the feminine voices of Wiig and her co-writer Annie Mumolo.
And there were definitely the moments when it soared, tickling the wings of the broad comedy gods. One gross-out scene in particular comes to mind. Without giving away too much, let’s just say it involves a bad bout of food poisoning plus trying on dresses. High-five to Bridemaids for subverting the shopping/make-over montage, a chick flick staple!
The biggest disappointment, though, was — SPOILER ALERT — what I like to call, “WTF Happened to Vegas?!” Despite its “female Hangover” reputation, one big thing was missing to make this movie that movie – VEGAS! The ladies get on a plane, bound for Sin City, but never make it there. The reasons why unfold into a fun and silly set piece, but I felt robbed of seeing this deliciously hilarious ensemble of funnyladies go wild in Vegas, or if not Vegas, go wild anywhere together, really – because beyond the aforementioned gross-out scene – they never did.
The lack of a scene or set piece in this tone is rooted in something deeper – the lack of womance in this film.
The 2000s have been called the decade of the bromance by rom-com expert Billy Mernit. We watched the “female” romantic comedy get more traditional and wedding-oriented than ever, and the broader comedies become stories about men bonding with their bros, learning to love their fellow man and in turn, themselves.
Noteworthy NY Times critic Manohla Dargis was pissed, telling Jezebel’s Irin Carmon, “All power to Apatow, but he’s taken and repurposed one of the few genres historically made for women … We had so few [genres] that were made specifically for the female audience and now the best of them are being made by Judd Apatow.”
This point is further illustrated in the following chart:
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| Lead Character: | Awkward, geeky loser named Andy who works at an electronics store, still a virgin. |
Awkward, lazy stoner named Ben who has no job and no game with the ladies. | Awkward, geeky losers named Seth and Evan who are about to graduate high school, still virgins. | Awkward, geeky loser FEMALE named Annie who works at a jewelry store and has no game with the dudes. |
| Central Problem: | 40-year-old man needs to lose his virginity. | Stoner/loser gets a girl pregnant and has to grow up. | Teens need to lose their virginity and sort out their friendship. | Loser female needs to get her act together to be her BFF’s maid of honor. |
| Love Interest: | A parade of Ms. Wrongs until he meets the quirky, age-appropriate gal of his dreams. | The gal he got preggers. Natch. | Their pair of hottie-mc-hott-hott crushes, one of them being Emma Stone. | A cop with a weird accent and a heart of gold. |
| Buddies: | His gang of well-meaning but clueless co-workers | His gang of stoner / porn site entrepreneur pals | Each other, plus their even geekier pal McLovin. | The bride, Lillian, and eventually, her fellow bridesmaids. |
| Gross LOL Moment: | Andy gets his chest waxed as his bros watch on in amusement and vicarious agony. | The giving birth scene. | Probably Evan’s foiled sex scene, but what sticks in my mind is the montage of penis drawings. That’s some creative shit. | The gross-out food poisoning + dresses scene. |
“I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends” Moment: |
Andy’s buddies spend the whole movie coaching him and helping him meet women – until their love lives fall apart too. | Ben does shrooms with his future bro-in-law and starts talking to the furniture, before finally realizing he needs to take responsibility. | After the alcohol the boys have quested for the whole movie ends up ruining their chances with the hottie-mc-hott-hotts, these two buddies realize they still have each other. | A quirky fellow bridesmaid who she’s barely spoken to in the movie comes over to smack some sense into Annie. |
No surprises in the first few rows – awkward losers are funnier than gorgeous, successful people. Sex and love make great central problems for rom-com characters, obvi. But one thing starts to become clear:
Unlike the bromantic male leads, when Kristen Wiig’s Annie is in trouble, she turns to her love interests, not her friends.
Never does a girlfriend take her out, get her wasted and/or stoned, take her to get her chest waxed (err, maybe eyebrows waxed?), or anything that would constitute womance at its best. Minus one pep talk from a fellow bridesmaid who Annie seemed to become kinda sorta friends with in the movie, when she’s in trouble, she calls her f*ckbuddy or her unhelpful mother. Ultimately, weird accent cop proves to be the one who’s always there for her, and she’s taught not to rely on her BFF Lillian anymore, now that’s she’s sailing away on the marriage ship.
So much for womance.
And it’s not that this film should’ve had a womance of epically earnest Babysitter’s Club proportions. The lack of womance, however, kept the movie from letting the gals go wild together, because it kept our funnygirls apart. And seeing this ensemble together, as we do on the poster, is where the funniest funny came from.
I end with the same challenge I presented last time:
Please, ladies, see Bridesmaids. Show the world that we can show up. Because secretly, this is a movie for us, even if we are chicks.
Homework: while you watch it, think about what it’s doing and not doing for women in comedy. And then come back here and tell me what you think.
Update: ScreenRant’s May 11 interview with co-writer Annie Mumolo delves into the reasons why a Vegas sequence was removed from the film two weeks before shooting — to avoid retreading the same territory as The Hangover. I still say this ensemble of gals deserved a hilarious bachelorette party sequence.
****
iluvcinema — Thanks for the comment! And I’m glad you enjoyed the deeper analysis 😉
And I agree that Bridesmaids is a huge step up from films like Bride Wars that promote stereotypical/unrealistic roles for women in comedy. I appreciated how real this film felt much of the time.
And re: women behind the camera — it’s tough! The numbers are very much not on our side in this industry when it comes to women writers and especially directors, (last I recall, only 7% of the Director’s Guild was female). But those of us who have a passion for it are working to change that — and first and foremost it comes from writing real, hilarious characters for women to play. So Bridesmaids is a victory in that sense.
Very good review – particularly for your deeper exploration for what it means for women and cinematic comedy. I kind of like that they did not go to Vegas. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I purposely ignored the press (except the poster – but did not read it) surrounding the movie because I wanted to see it on its on merits. I kind of liked. Nothing to make the world come to a halt but it delivered the laughs in the right places for me.
I will say that it is a step in the right direction, especially when one considers a couple of the last few comedies featuring women with a wedding theme – Bride Wars and Something Borrowed.
The main problem I have with a lot of comedies that are allegedly aimed at us women is that they are poorly written and paint the women as caricatures.
Since I am not a writer and especially not one with a comedic background, I am curious to know how (or why) there are so few women creating character and stories that can engage us.
The powers that be seem to think it is enough for us to see women in front of the camera. That is one reason I wanted to see this movie and for will encourage everyone I know that they should see it.
Thanks for the comment, Talia, and for sharing your opinion! I would’ve loved to see more of the hilarious ensemble as well. But the laughs were grand and the movie is definitely breaking new ground for female comedy with its box office success!
I just got back from seeing this hilarious movie. My verdict: almost, but not quite.
In bromances made by Apatow, there are men who come together by facing a conflict, which is standard as far as bromances go. In Bridesmaids, all I saw (besides the obviously hilarious situations the array of characters found themselves in) was Kristen Wiig (Annie) and Helen trying to one up each other, and fight to be Maya Rudolph’s bff. I think the movie would have been more successful in terms of “womance” if they realized their foolish competition earlier in the game to create the best possible wedding experience for Maya Rudolph and bond in the process. Obviously the central conflict was Annie vs. Helen, but I really really really wanted to see more of the other bridesmaids! They were hilarious!
One thing I thoroughly appreciated, was how many laughs this film got from the audience. I haven’t heard an audience crack up like that in awhile, from beginning to end. Even my father, who is totally against feminism and whatnot laughed (and cried at the end too!). So kudos to Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo for great writing.
I really hope that Bridesmaids can open the door to “female comedy” in cinema even wider, because it hardly scratched the surface of female oriented humor, and there is definitely a lot more where that came from.
I still haven’t seen it, but hope to see it soon and come back here, like you asked, with my own opinion. It’s weird because some folks see the trailer and think it’s going to be awful. Most of those people are men. Either way, they’ve done a pretty good job marketing the movie.
Thanks for the comment, Melanie! I did note the Megan pep talk, yes, it just struck me as a little strange since they hadn’t been friends throughout the movie. But she was a fun character so I think it worked at that moment.
And my point is less about them going wild or specifically going wild in Vegas — I agree that Vegas has obviously been done by The Hangover. It just felt like there was a buildup to nothing at that point of the story — which makes sense since the sequence was removed right before shooting.
For me, it wasn’t about them going to Vegas so much as them doing something together — (“womance”). I wanted to see the ensemble together more, which is how the movie was marketed. All Apatow comedies in particular are about getting by with a little help from your friends. (Hence the chart).
Anyway, I’m fully in support of this movie and I WANT EVERYONE TO SEE IT!
But I would be remiss if I let that overshadow my ability to give this film the critical look it deserves. Because only when we start treating the genre of “female comedy” as something REAL that deserves criticism, can it grow and fully realize itself.
This movie was all about female friendship!! And one of the girls did come to her rescue to support her in a time of need — the Megan character.
And I’m glad they didn’t go to Vegas, that would have been totally cliche. The humor wasn’t rooted in them “going wild”, which I’m also glad for because that would have just been copying films like Hang Over. This film’s humor was based on real life things, which makes it brilliant and relate-able.
Thanks for the insightful comments, Nikki & Linda! What I’m taking issue with too is how much more fun the movie could’ve had the ensemble had more screen time & girl antics together. It seems that’s what the poster/female Hangover campaign leads us to believe, but at the end of the day it does become the chick flick it was so scared to be after all. Not that chick flicks are bad! And I do think it subverts the genre and hilarity ensues. I just think we have a few steps further to go to get truly broad female comedy films. But go Kristen & gang for trailblazin’!
Awesome review, Erika. Though I know it’s a common epidemic (or maybe not with such negative connotation) for ladies to turn to their men for moral support, I think that we pay too much focus on that fact. I believe women turn to their friends as well in times of need. I wouldn’t be who I am today without my girl and guy friends. And by guy friends, I mean gay friends, with the exception of a few — we’re a hodge podge of support. I think that really is lacking in films about women. It’s not that this story doesn’t need to be told, it’s that we need more diversity of stories that are just as common among our female community. And that comes with time and with increasing the presence of women in the genre. Hello Kristen Wiig and hello Comediva. It’ll come… as long as women continue to break down barriers.
@Nikki Can we please see a “girl date” music vid some day sooooon?! 🙂 I hearts that song.
“a womance of epically earnest Babysitter’s Club proportions” is an excellent phrase. 🙂
Re: what it lacks, it’s sort of a cultural thing with women turning to the guy for salvation… played out an all, but how many ladies drop their friends once they find a guy to moon over? (See hiberdate.) So I can see why it happens here, too… though I NO LIKES IT. I maintain my womances with glorious girl dates and there’s nothing like them.
Anyway, sounds like this is a step in the right direction, clearing the way for some real womance movies to follow… I know I’m workin on it!