Bridesmaids

Finally the women get involved in the raunchy R-rated comedy game. The men have been hogging the spotlight of this re-born moneymaking genre, but Bridesmaids is funny enough to steal a little thunder and box-office from the trying-to-top-itself-by-going-to-Bangkok Hangover II. Bridesmaids might even be funnier than its male focused counterparts simply from the refreshing quality it has by showing us women behaving inappropriately for the sake of laughter.

While Bridesmaids works as an ensemble with lots of funny ladies on display in the cast, Kristen Wiig is the main talent responsible for the film's success. Wiig, a veteran of many years on Saturday Night Live and playing bit-parts in comedies, not only plays the lead role, she co-wrote the script about the misadventures of a gaggle of women before a wedding occurs. Wiig's character Annie is a down on her love-life woman stuck in a degrading sex-only relationship with an insensitive brute [Jon Hamm] whilst becoming increasingly jealous of her best friend's bridal choices. The entire cast, from Maya Rudolph to the scene-stealing Melissa McCarthy, fearlessly give their all.

Bridesmaids is produced by Judd Apatow and directed by former Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig. It has the familiar Apatow combination of taking bawdy language and situations with the underpinning of sweetness that make his romantic comedies [Knocked Up, 40 Year-Old Virgin] such a unique blend of naughty and nice. It's got plenty of doses of the outlandish, but it's never completely in place of warmhearted elements that make you root for these people [or at least some of them] even as you laugh at them. Wiig, along with the rest of the cast, is not afraid to look bad onscreen, which adds tremendously to the film's appeal. Bridesmaids is a very welcome addition to the R-rated comedy world and gives a slightly different perspective of comedic dysfunction, while giving us both characters with depth AND laughter. Let's see if the just released Hangover II can do both of those things.