MOVIE REVIEW - Bridesmaids

Saturday Night Love alum Kristen Wiig has taken a stab at writing and starring in her new comedy, Bridesmaids new this week.

This attempt at a "Hangover" style flick for women will more than likely be a big hit, and find an audience that might not normally go to this kind of comedy. To be honest, there are not a lot of movies made like this. Here, our young women characters have their chance to act less than attractive in scenes on screen. In short, this is a story of a few young women all thrown together as a wedding party for one of their friends. They don't know each other well, and we'll see if they can get along. Been done before? Yes.

But being very fair, when I left Bridesmaids, I felt it was one of those movies that left me feeling very definite about many things in this movie. Let's run them down.

First, Kristen Wiig is a very, very funny woman. I've like her before in smaller roles in other flicks, but here she shines. She plays Annie the maid of honor, with no money, no prospects, a string of bad luck, a chip on her shoulder and terrible decision making about men. Wiig is a great mix of being strangely attractive, physically very funny, and a master of understated dialogue delivery. I like everything about her in this movie. Good to see her really take off.

Second, there are undeniably some hilarious moments here. Both traditionally funny, and some very funny guilty pleasure laughs where you can't help but laugh even though it can be a bit uncomfortable. There is some very harsh language at times, and some vile and vulgar moments. Bridesmaids is clearly rated R in every regard. You have to be prepared to go down a road that is generally reserved for "dude" flicks. This is not for everyone.

Bridesmaids also does a great job of showing the highly complicated relationships that can develop between young women in this situation. There is wonderful parody of women's cattiness, jealousy and tension over planning a wedding. And how they deal with all of this tension. The women in the theater were howling at those moments. They had all been there.

But definite too is this. Bridesmaids is ENTIRELY too long. Checking in at over 2 hours, I was stunned at this. This flick would have been way funnier at 90 minutes. That's about the life of a great comedy. There are a few specific scenes too that are so long, they wore out their welcome many minutes earlier. This happens a few times. There are too many characters and side plots that don't make Bridesmaids better, just belabored and longer. That has always been the knock on SNL as well. The writers don't know how to ends scenes on TV. That happens here terribly a few times.

Bridesmaids. Taking into account all the good and the bad, this is not a wash out. It's very funny at times, and awkward at times. Just like Wiig herself. Interesting reflection of the writer. But a far better editing job and better decisions throughout, this could have been far better. Wiig though is worth the price of a ticket.