Bridesmaids Review

When Bridesmaids first came out, I heard really good things about it. I heard that it was like the female version of The Hangover, and having loved that movie, the idea of a female version thoroughly appealed to me. I finally got hold of a copy this week and decided to watch it on Wednesday night.

For those of you who may not have heard about Bridesmaids, I will offer a quick explanation of what the movie is about. A single woman, reeling from a recent breakup and the collapse of her business, is invited to be the maid of honour for her best friend's wedding. The two have been friends since they were little, and so she naturally is thrilled at the honour. She then finds out that the friend is marrying into quite a wealthy family and a wealthy society and that all of the bridesmaids are part of this society. She therefore needs to help plan a wedding that involves a lot of expenses to herself including bachelorette parties, bridesmaid dresses and general wedding-like expenses, all while being surrounded by women who are far wealthier and are all in supposedly healthy, happy relationships.

It sounds like a typical rom com, right? It sounds like it has potential. However, the movie ended up being a rollercoaster ride of emotions from awkward to hilarious to disgusting and heart-touching with many stops in between. There were moments that I loved about the movie, but there were also moments that I hated. There tend to be parts in movies where I cringe because I am so embarassed for the protagonist, usually because I can put myself in their shoes and just know that this is not going to work out the way that they have imagined it in their heads. I have what I like to think of as foresight. In any case, during this movie, there were moments where I cringed in that way, but there were also moments where I was just plain tempted to turn the movie off and stop right there.

I will explain in slightly further detail one of these moments, and I apologise for any spoilers that this may provide. However, I take it that if this specific scene puts you off, you probably wouldn't have enjoyed watching it anyway. There is a moment in the movie where the protagonist in an attempt to impress the other bridesmaids without spending a vast fortune decides to take the girls to a genuine Brazilian restaurant that she has found before they go for dress fittings. The place looks like a dump, but the food is supposed to be amazing. So they go to the restaurant and have a lovely lunch which they all enjoy and then they make their way to the dress fitting. While trying on ridiculously expensive dresses, each and every one of them suddenly comes down with a bad case of food poisoning and there is rushing for the toilets in every direction. By the time this hits the bride, there are no bathrooms left, and she is in a ridiculously expensive wedding dress. She therefore makes a run for the place across the road that does have a bathroom and can't make it, therefore falling down in the middle of the road in a wedding dress and... well... you can guess from there I am sure.

As I said before, there were horrendous moments, but there were also sweet ones, and it's one of those situations where your sense of humour will decide for you whether you go to watch the movie or not. All I can say is that it certainly was no female version of The Hangover, and the humour in it was not up to the same standard in my opinion.