BRIDESMAIDS (2011 - Cert 15)

I used Bridesmaids as an opportunity to treat my girlfriend and mum to a trip to the flicks. On the face of it seems like a lovely gesture, almost a sacrifice, taking them both to see a chick flick. However I was safe in the knowledge that the 'girl's Hangover' had been described as a film that boyfriends won't mind seeing with their girlfriends. It was win-win. Two sets of brownie points and a few laughs at the Electric Cinema.

Then as I sat in my obscenely comfortable seat and lifted my legs upon the foot rests, I started to worry. The Hype machine had been cracked up to 11 for this film and I became hesitant, what if those pesky marketing men had created a wave of hoopla that nothing could possibly live up to. The familiar dread of watching a rom-com set in.....



Then the film started and we meet Kirsten Wiig's Annie for the first time, having sex. Not in a nice, fluffy, rom-com way, but an awkward, slightly but not too graphic, funny way. From that moment I was sold on the film, it had me at 'Hello'.

What follows is Annie discovering her best friend is getting married and she is to be Maid of Honour, then to find out there is a another Maid of Honour, a rival, and how all of this affects the girls and the wedding plans in the run up to the big day. A not totally original set up, but one not ever seen like this before.

It really is a funny film, possibly the funniest I've seen in a long time. It's got the big set-pieces, the headline grabbers, yes they're based on familiar themes (toilet humour and getting pissed), yes they possibly go on a little longer than they should but they're done with so much dare that they feel original, and if you've got a funny scene, who is going to resist the temptation to wring every last drip of laughter from it. Plus, there aren't many massive toilet humour gags involving dress fittings - I can honestly say that if I ever see a woman in a wedding dress crossing the road hurriedly I will be quickly going in the other direction. Without looking back.

It's not just big long stretches of farts and slapstick. Bridesmaids has much more to offer than that and much of that is down to Wiig. There are two distinct layers to her impressive performance as Annie, one is that she is obviously inherently funny. Even with dialogue that doesn't contain a joke, she manages to deliver it in such a manner that it seems both natural and funny, I'm not talking Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell gurning, just subtle, natural on-screen humour. She's a great physical comedian too. She doesn't take herself too seriously so that she worries she's making herself look a fool or unattractive. Often with female actresses in comedies (yes you Jennifer Anniston) they will attempt a a gross-out or a slapstick sequence, but end up looking perfect without even a hair falling out of place. Wiig doesn't give a monkey's. She's running around kicking cakes, trying to push water features over, climbing on top of heavy swinging doors, putting herself through cringing sex scenes. It's refreshing and, more importantly, funny. The other layer to her performance is how believable she makes the whole thing. Despite all of the chaos around her, and the mad cap characters bouncing off her, I was totally convinced by her character and the mid-thirties crisis she is going through. It grounds the film and makes Annie a character we empathise with. It must also be said that this is helped hugely by some brilliantly acted and written scenes in the early part of the film where we are introduced to the friendship between Annie and her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). I had a quick scan around the cinema during these scenes at the women around me and the smiles indicated to be that they had got those exchanges pitch perfect.

Supporting characters in the party include Wendi LcLendon-Covey as a bitter mother locked in a sexless marriage, a character we've seen many times before but it still manages to squeeze out a laugh or two, a goodie two-shoes square played by Ellie Kemper who doesn't really have a great deal to do, Rose Byrne as Helen, Annie's rival is great, despite seemingly being perfect in every way, she does a great job at being deliberately malicious but at the same time never letting her Stepford Wives persona slip. It's creepy and funny at the same time. Then there is Melissa McCarthy's Megan. I'm not really sure how to describe her. Mental, eccentric, deluded, realistic, heroic, disgusting. They all apply but each adjective on their own wouldn't do the character justice. She really needs to be seen to be believed but she does steal the show and if Wiig doesn't worry about looking a fool, McCarthy revels in it and rolls around in a bath tub of it.

It's not all praise, praise, praise I'm afraid though. Chris O'Dowd as the love interest really didn't do it for me. It's a huge shame because he is a funny bloke, and it must be said that he is fairly funny in this, but his scenes with Wiig just don't work at all. It's a massive issue because the rest of Wiig's character is done so well, she then stumbles in to scenes with O'Dowd's policeman that contain no chemistry whatsoever. It may seem a minor concern but while the make up/conflict scenes between Annie and Lillian feel heartfelt/upsetting, I didn't care what happened in those scenes where Annie and the copper were going through the would they/won't they routine. It detracts massively. Some of the supporting cast seemed to come and go at random, there would be a bit of back story for one of the girls, then you wouldn't see them again for the rest of the film. It felt as though there were more scenes in there for the cast that were cut out, but thought wasn't given as to how those cuts would affect the rest of the movie. It's a small gripe but for it to be noticeable means it should have been addressed.

After the film I had a post-mortem with my girlfriend and mum and I seemed to enjoy it more than the two of them. Mum thought it would be funnier (a symptom of the hype machine I'm afraid) and the girlfriend thought it was a bit more soppy than she expected. I thought it was very funny, touching in places, and probably the best, all out comedy I can remember in years.

I think the excitement generated says a lot about the quality of so-called 'chick flicks' and rom-coms as the stampede towards cinema screens alludes to an admittance that those films really aren't all that. Hopefully the success of Bridesmaids (£3.44m in it's opening weekend here) can raise the bar and make film studios realise that the can't get away with just putting Jennifer Aniston or Kate Hudson in a film with a half finished script where they forgot to put the jokes in.

Oh and make sure you stay for the credits.