Title: Bridesmaids
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Paul Feig
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne
Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes

What It Is: Annie (Wiig) hates the way her life is going ever since her bakery closed down and her fiancé went with it. That’s okay she could always trust on her BFF Lillian (Rudolph). But just as Annie’s life can’t get worse Lillian tells her she about to tie the knot and has selected her the Maid of Honor. As if she needed more stress to her already downtrodden existence, she is given one of the hardest jobs in the wedding party. To top things off she must deal with her husband’s boss’s wife Helen. Helen is desperately trying to elbow her way into the MOH spotlight, by quite frankly pushing Annie into making mistakes. And THAT she does. It is these mistakes (along with some unfortunate events involving bad Brazilian food.) That force Annie not just out her MOH spot but out of the wedding party.

What We Think: A lot of the hilarity in this takes place at the expense of Wiig’s character. If not for a poorly developed “relationship” between Annie and her cop beau Rhodes (Played charmingly by Chris O’Dowd) this would have been the perfect anti-chick flick film. However, the “romance” angle still puts it there, but make no mistake Bridesmaids is by no means in the same league as those films. This is a female lead raunch fest. Sort of like the “other” side of “The Hangover”.  While the romance was poorly developed it by no means hinders the film, in fact, had they taken the time to elongate the romance further into the plot the film would’ve lost momentum. Instead, and wisely so Feig decided to let this angle be the casualty at the expense of actual plot development. Spoiler Alert, girl get the guy….DUH! Through all of this though the one really refreshing thing is the other maids themselves (played by Wendy McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, and the unbelievably funny Melissa McCarthy). Feig does a splendid job of letting his ladies get into messes, without being heavy-handed in his direction which contemplates the script perfectly.

Our Grade: A-, While it’s far from perfect it blows any romantic comedy so far this year out of the water. It’s far better at making you laugh when compared to the Hangover “sequel”. All in all, it’s the best thing both genres have had all year, and it is probably the first time I’ve literally laughed at a romantic comedy the whole way through….actually not true most of the make me laugh throughout but not for the same reason as this genuinely funny film does. That’s another discussion for another day, however.