Monday Movie Review: Bridesmaids

So, as mentioned last Friday, Jackie and I took in a showing of Bridesmaids over the weekend. I had heard all kinds of great things about this movie and was really anxious to see it. One comment I heard (I think on the Today show) was that this was like The Hangover for women.

As far as chick flicks go, this movie was far from anything you are used to seeing. In fact the only thing this movie had in common with other chick flicks is that there are a lot of girls in the movie and in the end a guy and girl fall in love, and that’s about it.

The premise of the movie is that Lillian is getting married and asks her childhood best friend, Annie to be her maid of honor. At the engagement party, Annie meets all the other bridesmaids, including Helen who is Lillian’s newest “best friend” and a total witch. Needless to say, the craziness starts when Annie gives a speech and then Helen gives a speech and they end up passing the microphone back and forth in competition with one another over who loves Lillian the most. Things just go downhill from that point on as Helen and Annie are in constant competition with one another over details and party planning and the affection of Lillian.

There’s a trip to Vegas in the works for a bachelorette weekend and Annie, who has a fear of flying ends up wasted because she takes a couple of pills and downs a scotch to relax. In her wasted state, Annie ends up getting arrested and the plane makes an emergency landing to escort the girls off the plane.

When Annie arranges for the girls to go to lunch (Brazilian food) and dress shopping, the day turns into a complete disaster when all the girls get food poisoning and end up in the bathroom of the bridal shop. I won’t go into more details here because this scene was so disgusting I had to shut my eyes. It was way more than I could handle.

The bridal shower is another disaster as Annie totally looses her mind in a scene that had me laughing so hard I’m surprised I didn’t pee myself.

In between all the bridal showers and parties, Annie meets a cop, Nathan Rhodes, who pulls her over because she is swerving, and although not drunk, her taillights are not working and he starts to write her a ticket. In the end, he doesn’t give her the ticket and wouldn’t you know it they eventually spend some time together and by the end of the movie it’s a happily ever after for those two. I guess I gave a little bit away there, but that is the one predictable part of the movie. Nathan is played by Chris O’Dowd, who is totally worth the $9 to go see the movie. He is the yummiest man I’ve seen on the big screen in some time. Absolutely dreamy, girls! Absolutely dreamy!

Overall, this was a pretty good movie. I did a lot of laughing in between all the times I was in absolute shock and I also did some crying at the end when Annie and Nathan had their big screen kiss. I can’t help it; those types of scenes make a sap out of me and then cause me to get down in the dumps about my own non-existent romantic life. It didn’t help that I found a lot of (perhaps way too many) commonalities between myself and Annie.

So, was the movie worth $9, maybe? It all depends on the type of movie you like. Most people might want to wait for this one to come out on DVD or the $1 movies. I would also caution you – this movie is rated R and not for the faint of heart. You have to have a strong stomach and a carefree attitude to view this one because it is raunchy and lewd and crude in many parts. In other words, I don’t think this one is for my dear friend Erika.