Trainwreck
Don't Go! Just the Bridesmaid to Bridesmaids.
30-something lady's troubled love .
Comedy movies (nay, all movies) with female leads are too few and far between. Bridesmaids (2011) was a delight in that respect - it proved that there is a gender-neutral market for women-led comedies (taking $288 million worldwide), and there is every reason why they can be nose-hair jigglingly hilarious. Since then, we've only really had The Heat (2013) and Spy (2015) - both box office hits ($200+ million), but both also directed by Bridesmaid's Paul Feig and again, starring Melissa McCarthy. Trainwreck finally steams in with high expectations of diversifying that list. It reintroduces Judd Apatow as director, the comedy-super-producer behind Bridesmaids, Anchorman and Superbad and director of 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up; and pairs him with Amy Schumer, America's female stand-up flavour of the moment as writer and star. Come on. Split our sides.
The story is reliable - Schumer plays a 30-something "fun time", "anti-monogamy", "[insert euphemism]" journalist who is tasked by her editor (Tilda Swinton, The Grand Budapest Hotel) with writing an article about a sports doctor (Bill Hader, Superbad). They fall in love. It goes well, it goes badly, it goes well, the film ends. Standard rom-com vehicle.
To say "it's been done before" is fairly irrelevant - there have been 33 year old women around for what? At least 50 years. So the story will always be relevant and in need of modernisation. Sadly Trainwreck falls painfully short of Bridesmaids' realistic, satirical smart humour; largely because it is a film about virtually the same character, who is less funny, less lovable and considerably less of a dramatic failure than Kristen Whig's Bridesmaids equivalent. Very little of the film sees Schumer as an actual trainwreck - it's more minor delays caused by leaves on the line rather than anything near a total derailment. The result is, like that smug b**ch at the party wearing exactly the same dress but looking much better in it, Bridesmaids is the reigning belle of the insightful comedy ball (alongside Lena Dunham's Girls). Trainwreck fails to add much to the rich, but still burgeoning genre.
To say "it's been done before" is fairly irrelevant - there have been 33 year old women around for what? At least 50 years. So the story will always be relevant and in need of modernisation. Sadly Trainwreck falls painfully short of Bridesmaids' realistic, satirical smart humour; largely because it is a film about virtually the same character, who is less funny, less lovable and considerably less of a dramatic failure than Kristen Whig's Bridesmaids equivalent. Very little of the film sees Schumer as an actual trainwreck - it's more minor delays caused by leaves on the line rather than anything near a total derailment. The result is, like that smug b**ch at the party wearing exactly the same dress but looking much better in it, Bridesmaids is the reigning belle of the insightful comedy ball (alongside Lena Dunham's Girls). Trainwreck fails to add much to the rich, but still burgeoning genre.
The lack of necessary rom and com in the film is compounded by a raft of weird cameos. WWE wrestler, John Cena plays a distractingly wooden love interest; basketballer Amar'e Stoudemire and other American sports stars appear as patients of Hader's doctor; Matthew Broderick (why?!), Chris Evert and some ageing sports commentator of some kind irrationally pop up; Wu Tang Clan member, Method Man is a West African nurse; and Marisa Tomei and Daniel Radcliffe star in a strange but seemingly unnecessary spoof of an arthouse film. Frankly, all of these people seem crowbarred into a story that is not funny or captivating enough to support a parallel cast of real-life characters. Perhaps it was felt necessary to make the film seem more interesting or (short-sightedly) appeal more to men. Either way, it doesn't work. Especially for a non-American audience, most of these characters will be virtual unknowns.
The one saving grace of this cheap trick of celebrity is LeBron James. The world's best basketball player is still more likely to win an MVP than an Oscar, but he sends himself up well as a sensitive, playful cheapskate. Besides LeBron, there are admittedly other moments of amusement. Tilda Swinton is uncharacteristically tanned and glammed to dastardly effect and some of Schumer's stand up jokes translate well into live action comedy. Scenes of awkwardness are everywhere, and some of them (not the sex scenes, which are simply too daft) are believable enough to raise a laugh. Nonetheless, it is far too disjointed; to the point that, in parts, the film drags more than RuPaul. When the emotional and supposedly romantic moments arrive, there is too little to care about to make them stick, largely because the one-dimensional characters are repetitive, uninteresting and offer too little for us to connect with.
So don't go. It is great to have a new female-led comedy and Schumer is decent in her first cinematic outing. If the film was 30 minutes shorter than its 2 hour running time, it might have been better. As it stands, it falls well short what it could have been. Stay home and watch Bridesmaids.
The one saving grace of this cheap trick of celebrity is LeBron James. The world's best basketball player is still more likely to win an MVP than an Oscar, but he sends himself up well as a sensitive, playful cheapskate. Besides LeBron, there are admittedly other moments of amusement. Tilda Swinton is uncharacteristically tanned and glammed to dastardly effect and some of Schumer's stand up jokes translate well into live action comedy. Scenes of awkwardness are everywhere, and some of them (not the sex scenes, which are simply too daft) are believable enough to raise a laugh. Nonetheless, it is far too disjointed; to the point that, in parts, the film drags more than RuPaul. When the emotional and supposedly romantic moments arrive, there is too little to care about to make them stick, largely because the one-dimensional characters are repetitive, uninteresting and offer too little for us to connect with.
So don't go. It is great to have a new female-led comedy and Schumer is decent in her first cinematic outing. If the film was 30 minutes shorter than its 2 hour running time, it might have been better. As it stands, it falls well short what it could have been. Stay home and watch Bridesmaids.
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