"Bridesmaids"

"Bridesmaids" (2011)  is a movie riding on the coattails of Judd Apatow. A lot of people love this movie. I do not. I find it very awkward, and the main characters are not strong leads. 

Kristen Wiig plays Annie, who is in a very bad part of her life. Everyone walks all over her, and the negativity in her life exudes from her everywhere. Her life-long best friend Lilian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged, and she's going to be the maid of honor. There's a catch, though: one of the bridesmaids Helen (Rose Byrne) is taking over everything. Her and Annie butt heads, and things escalate.

I love dark comedy. I love physical comedy. I love feel-good comedy. I love most any kinds of comedy. I hate awkward comedy. I hate feeling awkward, and this movie is loaded with it. I should say I hate awkward comedy with poor delivery, which is brought on by the weaker leads (coming soon). The opening scene is an awkward sex scene. We get introduced to Rebel Wilson, and it's awkward. We get introduced to Becca and her husband Kevin, and it's awkward. We get introduced to Melissa McCarthy, and it's awkward. We get introduced to Rose Byrne and its awkward. Rose Byrne and Kristen Wiig have a best friend speech competition and its possibly the most awkward (and worst) part of the movie. This is just the first fifteen minutes. There is plenty more awkwardness as the movie progresses.

As I said before, none of the characters are strong leads. I love Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, but I never see them as leads. They are great support characters in other movies. They are not strong leads. I understand that part of what makes this movie go is the fact that Annie is a pushover and full of negativity. But her weakness doesn't feel like just character weakness. It makes me feel very uncomfortable, that's for sure. I also greatly dislike Melissa McCarthy and Rebel Wilson, so that doesn't help things.

I can understand the appeal. Some people love the awkward comedy thing. It is not my thing. My wife loves this movie, but I feel like I'm wasting my time watching it. If you've seen an Apatow film, you already know what's going to happen (even though he only produced it and had no other attachment to the movie). This follows the typical Apatow movie progression, complete with poop and vomit.

While watching this I was trying to decide if the reason I dislike this movie is some hidden gender bias on my part. I started to imagine many of the scenes with men in the roles like Jason Segal and Seth Rogan (Apatow classics). It didn't make these scenes any better in my head. That lead me to believe that my issue might not have been with Kristen Wiig and the cast, but the writing. Which would still leave Kristen Wiig to blame.