When her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) asks her to be the maid of honor in her wedding, this serves as a some kind of a wake-up call for her, making her realize that she’s been a loser of a single girl for so long. She organizes a bridal party but someone meddles with her plans, Helen (Rose Byrne), the bitchy trophy wife of the groom’s boss who makes everything a contest and tries to upstage her at every chance. Wiig is a co-writer of the screenplay and she has created for herself a realistic character that a lot of ordinary women can relate with. This is what makes “Bridesmaids” different from the usual chick-flick.
A female ensemble comedy with plenty of hilarious moments, the most side-splitting ones are the scenes in a flight to Las Vegas where Annie is so nervous about flying that Helen gives her something to calm her down but results into funny consequences, like Annie trying to get into first class to join her friends. Other ribticklers are the tennis death match and the bridal shop scene where the girls get food poisoning. One thing about this comedy is that its humor can also appeal to men so it’s not surprising that some folk say it’s the female version of “The Hangover” in that it got viewers from both sexes. It even has its own Alan character in Megan (Melissa MacCarthy), the similarly fat, uncouth and addled sister of the groom. The other bridesmaids are the naive newlywed Becca (Ellie Kemper) and the aging mother of three teen sons Rita (Wendi Covey – “my house is covered in semen”). The wise-cracking Wiig reminds us of Carol Burnett and Lily Tomlin. Bawdy, raunchy and sometimes gross, the movie is both goofy and touching, reminding us that women can also be as lustful and vulgar as men.
