Quatro Amigas e um Casamento

A dark comedy starring three women. That's all the basic information you need to know this was not going to bide well with film snobs, much less the misogynistic ones. Bachelorette is a very humorous and fun movie that I had a great time with. I knew as soon as I got through watching it to come rate it on IMDb though that people would be bashing it, but I had no idea the backlash would be this harsh.

The story is simple enough: Four high school friends all get together to relive their glory days as one, the most unattractive (Rebel Wilson), is about to get married. The bridesmaids consist of high-strung Kirsten Dunst, burnout Lizzy Caplan, and dim-witted but lovable Isla Fisher, which in my opinion Isla Fisher absolutely stole the show. I loved it. It is very mean and in your face with it's brutality. You almost wonder why these women are even friends to begin with, but unlike everyone saying there is no reason, the film ties up all it's loose ends and shows how all of the women have their own battle scars and shining personalities in the end.

Don't let the comments and rating shy you away from this one, there are some gut-busting scenes. Like I said, Isla Fisher was magnificent. I thoroughly enjoyed and believed in her character, not to say the other stars didn't deliver, she just outshines them!

I feel like a lot of people are giving this movie flack because they're comparing it to Bridesmaids. That's the problem with movie-goers. We call each movie, the next or the imitation or worst than or better than. On it's own, Bachelorette did really well. It's a dark comedy/ raunchy film but it's done so well. It's not common in Hollywood that you have movies where women are complex as the men. Some reviews state that they find the characters to not be redeeming, but I think that's what makes Bachelorette so strong. We have 3 complex, intriguing, and yeah, messed up individuals. What it gives you is a very plausible comedy. A review online called this the mix between Mean Girls + Bridesmaids. Aside from the similar wedding scenario, this is more the women version of the Hangover and fused with Mean Girls. Check it out, it's a good laugh ride if you're into dark comedies.

The Bachelorette (2012)

Wow. Basically horrible, sexist, weightist (if that's a word), and badly written. And badly edited. And routinely filmed and directed. It even has some good talent (Kirsten Dunst is the big name) and a decent basic if familiar idea--a girl gets engaged and her friends all go to the wedding where things go wrong and lots of old skeletons come out of the closet.

The humor is purposely trashy party humor. This is where a certain audience might have fun with it. It didn't work at all, most of the time. (There are partial exceptions, like the early scene on the plane where the woman tells a stranger man next to her the nuances of giving a blow job.)

So, what is the point of all this? It's mostly just young people incredibly mindlessly liberated, with lots of fun sex and drugs, and lots of old baggage and new lovers popping up and crossing paths. The scenes are lively, the music lively, the jokes, well, lively (which is not always funny, though there are some laughs).

The director and writer is Leslye Headland, and yes, she has to take almost all the blame, though the producers must have seen something, maybe a pretty face, that blinded them to the reality. But then, this is her first film on both scores (she was a stunt driver in one other movie prior), so we have even more questions marks--why her, why her?

Mostly this is horrible. And stupid. And horrible! There, I got it out. Squandered a good hour plus.

Following weakly on the heels of Bridesmaids is this other bridesmaids movie. It kind of sucks for the writer/director Leslye Headland, in that it's based on the play she wrote several years ago (and she likely already had the movie deal before Bridesmaids appeared). Even if it was beaten to the punch, though, it's not very good. The film follows three high school friends (Kiresten Dunst, Lizzy Kaplan and Isla Fisher) who gather back home for the wedding of another friend (Rebel Wilson). All three of the bridesmaids have pretty cruddy lives, and they're upset that their less attractive, fatter friend is getting married before them. The night before the wedding, on a coke binge, the three tear Wilson's wedding dress and then have to scramble to repair it. The thing that will put most viewers off of this film is that the three leads are just awful, petty people. Many of the supporting characters (notably James Marsden and Adam Scott) are even more despicable. You have to wonder how these people are friends with the bride and groom in the first place. I did think, after a while, they characterised the three women enough that we at least understood why they were so screwed up. There are a handful of funny moments. Any small bit of goodwill it had built, though, was jettisoned by its ultra-lame rush-to-the-wedding finale, and then a particularly painful and miscalculated post-wedding toast where Adam Scott tries to hook back up with Caplan, who was his high school girlfriend. The film's really just not worth sitting through.

***It's too bad that this movie came out in the same year as "Bridesmaids." That coincidence contributes to shallow thinkers erroneously setting these two films against each other. Both share a basic scenario: a bridal party in the days before a wedding. Aside from that, they are completely different movies.

Pick two "Civil War" films. "Gone with the Wind" and "Gettysburg." There's room in the world for both.

"Bridesmaids" was a hilarious film.***

So now... THIS movie, called "Bachelorette."

This is a dark, edgy, uncomfortable comedy. The characters are realistically flawed. They do ugly things and treat each other badly. They also obviously care for each other and make some astute observations about life. There are too many weirdly, subversively funny moments to list.

If you watch it expecting a light, breezy "chick flick" you will be disappointed. If you watch it expecting a gritty, grimly hilarious portrait of three very human women trying to overcome their own flaws and self-inflicted disasters, you'll have a damn good time.

Notes: 1) Kirsten Dunst is awesome playing a tightly-wound, abrasive control freak. I love the hard edge she has here. And the way her face betrays the fact she's always on the verge of coming apart at the seams.

2) Lizzy Caplan. FINALLY in a movie and role worthy of her comedic talents.

3) Rebel Wilson. Naturally hilarious. Too bad her role necessitates under-utilizing her gifts.

4) James Marsden. I've only ever seen him in good-guy roles (at which he is excellent). It's a confirmation of his skill that he's equally great at playing a sleazeball manipulator.

5) June Diane Raphael. The uniquely nutty, endlessly comical Raphael's cameo in the bathroom with Lizzy Caplan is easily the funniest scene in the movie.