Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids
May 13, 2011
Universal
Comedy
DVD
B-

When I first saw this movie, it made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me consider walking out at the really gross food-poisoning scene.  My reaction on watching it for I think the fifth time was not as extreme in any regard.  I still think Kristen Wiig does a good job, as star and co-writer, of capturing a particular kind of woman who's messed up her life but not as much as she thinks.  Also, it is nice to see female friendship, in various forms, put at the center, even if the subject is ostensibly a wedding.  This does mean unfortunately that the men are really short-changed, some of them not even getting lines.  I certainly would've liked to have seen more of Chris O'Dowd's nice Irish cop.  And even some of the women have unresolved plot threads, including Wiig's own.  (Does she start another bakery or what?)  That said, Melissa McCarthy comes close to stealing the movie in what I recall as her first significant big-screen role.

Wilson Phillips appear as themselves, and Chynna Phillips was the love interest Cindy in The Invisible Kid.  Nancy Carell was the Health Clinic Counselor in The 40 Year Old Virgin but is less memorable here as Helen's Tennis Partner, while Joe Nunez was Man Buffing Floor there and is Oscar the Security Guard here.  Jessica St. Clair, who plays Whitney at the bridal salon, would be Deena Schuster in Wanderlust.