The Edge of Glory

Here’s something you will not need to fully, really appreciate Annie Walker, Kristin Wiig’s character in the beyond-riotous, Judd Apatow-produced chick-com Bridesmaids (which she co-wrote): 3-D glasses.

Suck on that, gimmick of the moment.

No, no, no – seriously though, thanks to the SNL MVP’s beautifully nuanced performance (which is equal parts funny, real/tragic, and relatable), Annie is fully realized, and we, as the audience, are all the better for it because here’s a woman we can enjoy.

She is, and I’m oversimplifying here, super-flawed, and yet, we can and we do want to root for her.

We wanna laugh with, protect, and shake her – anything you would want to do to someone who’s one of your people.

Of course, Annie’s more complicated than that. There’s more to her than her so-called flaws, y’ know. She’s so close to everything she wants...she just can’t see it at the moment.

There’s her circumstances, which are less than ideal. She’s still recovering from a failed business venture and the break-up that followed (her bf didn’t quite care for her on the downswing of a bakery gone bust). She’s very much broke and lives with some weirdo British brother-sister roommates. The cherry on top of a not-fun cake: her lifelong BFF Lillian (Wiig’s fellow SNLer, the earthy Maya Rudolph) is getting married, and figuratively and literally leaving her behind.

Life’s a mess for Annie. A complete and utter joyless mess. Her rich-douche male friend with whom she has quote-unquote adult fun (Jon Hamm) thinks of her as nothing but an FB, and she is too down in the dumps to stand up for herself and allow herself to have better. Yeah, she’s that wounded.

And, jeez, you wonder...this is a comedy?

My, yes, it is. If you can’t enjoy the ridiculousness of all of this then you will probably enjoy Bridesmaids only for the hijinks that come from seeing a lovelorn woman fake enthusiasm as she throws herself into the rituals leading up to her best friend’s wedding, all of which she kinda ruins as the worst maid of honor ever.

Poor Annie does it all: she makes a fool of herself trying to out-toast Lillian’s new gal pal (Rose Byrne), a moneyed doll too bored with her own life to know better than not to intrude in their friendship; she takes the entire bridal party to a questionable, to say the least, Brazilian churrascaria, resulting in the most hilarious gotta-go-gotta-go-right-now scene I’ve ever seen; and she ultimately takes too much attention away from the bride (not ’cause she wants to, but because something’s gotta give), which, as everyone knows, is the faux pas of all faux pas.

I laughed and laughed from beginning to end with Bridesmaids, but not just because of this but because it had the heart that let Annie take a good look at herself and heal her wounds and open up to som’in’ new. In her case, it’s four brand new friendships (with the rest of the scene-stealing bridesmaids, which include Melissa McCarthy in a hilarious turn as a very...peculiar lady – she’s got the Galifianakis role for sure), and a budding romance with a charming Irish patrolman (Chris O’Dowd).

The truest humor is in the details, and this keenly observed movie is an embarrassment of that sort of riches.

My Rating ****

Photo: Universal Pictures.