A gross-out comedy for the ladies
Film
BRIDESMAIDS
Cert: 15
PRODUCED by the multi-faceted Judd Apatow, Bridesmaids follows in the footsteps of a recent wave of offbeat comedies such as Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad and Knocked Up – with the crucial difference that instead of overgrown frat boys, the protagonists here are women.
Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig stars as Annie, a tragic singleton whose life begins to disintegrate when her best friend announces that she’s getting married.
What ensues is a whole lorry load of chaos involving Annie and an eclectic bunch of weird and wonderful bridesmaids, refreshingly played by a group of largely unknown actresses. To say that this is more than a tad reminiscent of The Hangover wouldn’t be a lie.
As with most Apatow films, the shocks are responsible for the belly laughs, and a scene depicting an outlandish incidence of diarrhoea in a boutique reduced at least half of the audience to tears. Unfortunately it’s also the case with Apatow comedies that a fairly high percentage of the jokes fall flatter than they should. Matt Lucas’s turn as one half of Annie’s kooky sibling flatmates barely raises a titter. Perhaps this is because no one’s yet figured out that simply being weird isn’t always funny.
However, a romantic storyline between Annie and a police officer played by Blighty’s own Chris O’Dowd (IT Crowd) is charmingly handled, and there’s no denying that the film’s characters are fun to spend time with. If some of the jokes miss, this is very likeable antidote to the likes of Sex and the City nevertheless.
Hayley Wright
LOVE’S KITCHEN
Cert: 15
If someone invites you to see this film, ask them to punch you repeatedly in the face for 90 minutes instead. I guarantee that this will be more pleasurable than the alternative – a saccharine romantic “comedy” in which the acting is so unbelievably poor that Gordon Ramsay – yes, the sweary superchef has finally made it to cinema stardom – fails to convince… as himself.
Dougray Scott stars as recently widowed chef and father Rob Haley, who takes over a country gastro-pub at the behest of El Gordo, urging him in his wooden way to sort his life out – when his 30-second period of mourning turns his trendy London food to mush. There, he meets food critic Kate Templeton (Claire Forlani) with whom he embarks on a predictably hackneyed journey to romance. This includes almost every clichéd plot point you can think of, from Rob seductively teaching Kate how to use a knife, to chasing her to the airport.
The writing is atrocious. It’s exceptionally painful to see actors of the calibre of Peter Bowles and Simon Callow playing ridiculous characters lumbered with unnatural, embarrassingly stilted dialogue.
And then there’s the trifle. Yes, this is Rob’s implausible choice of signature dish which is tiresomely and predictably produced at every possible opportunity – particularly when needed to win somebody over.
It’s a shame it wasn’t available at the screening, because this film is definitely more boil-in-the-bag than Cordon Bleu.