Bridesmaids - 2011

Bridesmaids

This is a movie that has broken so many traditional comedy rules.

• Women aren't funny.  That is a load of bull.
• You can't have a successful R-rated comedy.  This isn't the first time that has been proven totally wrong.
• A comedy can't be more than 90 minutes long.  This is a 121 minutes of "OMG I am going to pee my pants funny".
• Comedies don't get nominated for Oscars.  Melissa McCarthy.  That is all. 
• Women don't like bathroom humor.  When it is done right, it is hilarious.

I think it also has a very realistic view of women as friends.  Although there is a competition, it is one I understand, it is natural as well.  Often our lives move at different speeds.  I have a friend that I met the first day of high school.  We were alphabetical and sat next to each other in homeroom.  Our birthdays are exactly two weeks apart.  I have a 23 year old son.  I have been married for 23 years.  She has two children under the age of 10.  The year my son graduated from high school in the spring, her son started kindergarten in the fall. 

When someone is moving at a different pace it is easy to get jealous or simply fall out of touch.   When my child was young and she was still navigating the waters of singledom and falling in love we didn't spend hours on the phone.  Now she is wrapped up in Boy Scouts and school programs and following bedtimes.  My kid works full time, pays rent and can watch the house for a week if I want to go somewhere on vacation. 

When Annie finds out her best friend is getting married, she is genuinely happy for her.  It is only when her singleness is like a spotlight following her around that she becomes uncomfortable.  Soon there is that married friend, the couple friend that brings up the green eyed monster.





I love that Annie makes bad decisions.   She sleeps with the wrong man for the wrong reasons.  She loses her job.  She has to move in with her mom.  She has failed but doesn't give up hope.





I love the way they bring together a realistic group of bridesmaids.  There is the best friend, the cousin, the sister-in-law to be, a groomsman's wife and the friend from work. 

I think most women have had those friends that have never met until thrown together in a wedding.  I got to take the easy way and just had my little sister.  No agonizing about the order of the procession, which is kind of a crazy ranking of the family/friend status.





I love the great bridal store dress face off scene.  I have been in that battle over the least horrific gown that will look halfway decent on all body types.  I have worn a peach silk gown with a gigantic bow accentuating by butt.  There was also a flower wreath on my head.  I pray the pictures of that one were lost in some sad, but no is hurt, fire.

Is there some rule that the bridesmaids should not look attractive?





These are not the kind of dresses I have gotten to wear.  When I stood up for my sister, the dress was a nightmare.  They were rented, which was great.  But it was so loose I spent the morning doing nip and tuck with safety pins.  Then I waited in horror to have one burst at an inopportune moment causing my to lose the deposit and be forced to buy the hideous thing. 

This movie is funny and it is not a chick flick.  My husband went to see it.  My husband will not go anywhere near a girl movie.  It is a great way to spend an evening.  I won't give away too much.  But trust me, all the funny parts are not in the trailer.