The Last Laugh: Bridesmaids vs. Bromance

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.

womance

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:

40yearoldvirgin knockedup superbad bridesmaids_poster
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.

****

 

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