Kristen Wiig was NOT named Stella

Feeling pretty tired, so I'm planning on turning in early (4am).

But I'm behind on the whole posting thing, well, not too much, but I've gotta get started.

Just got back from a great evening out, it was a lot of fun.

I went to see Bridesmaids last Tuesday (wait, Isaac, you just got home from watching X-Men, and you're going to talk about Bridesmaids? Yes. Yes I am.) and it was pretty bad. My buddy and I were in agreement on the not liking-ness of it, so that's good.

Part of it was the crowd, a huge mass that forced us onto the theatres periphery (by which I mean like the second or third row from the screen), laughing at anything way too long- we both would have preferred some subtitles at points, because the story was moving ahead while the audience was still focusing on whatever slight gag just happened.

One woman was amazing though. Behind us, when Kristen Wiig's character met the guy she was obviously going to go out with, the woman behind us loudly tells her friend (or maybe she was talking to herself, I never looked back to check) "Ooh, she's gonna be with that guy and she don't even know."

I said to my friend "whoah, did you hear that? This woman is amazing- she knows what's going to happen!"

We had a bunch of fun at that mysterious voices expense.

There were too many bridesmaids for a proper focus to justify their presence in the film. Erin from the Office and Reno 911 woman (I apparently don't know names) could easily have been cut from the picture, a few gags would have been lost, but the overall film would have been much tighter.

When the bride is losing it at the end, she says it's due to Helen's taking everything over, running up the expenses beyond what her father could pay for, the natural worries over taking that big marriage step and of course there's the distance that had been created between herself and her life long friend Kristen Wiig's character.

Kristen and the bride make up then, and yes that'll go a long way to solving most of those problems, but the very real issue of the expense of the wedding is ignored for the remainder of the film (not counting the surprise appearance of the brides favourite band and the father deadpans "I'm not paying for that!"). Not only do they ignore the financial problems of the father, but Kristen Wiig's character had also been struggling with money all through the film, but there she is, a bridesmaid once again, wearing the same dress as all the other bridesmaids. Where'd the money for that come from?

Wiig's characters money troubles were a big focus in the film; from cheaping out on the personal trainer (jumping in on someones outdoor class), pointing the other ladies in the direction of the cheaper (i.e. affordable) bridesmaids dress (which is NOT the dress everyone is wearing at the end), constant worries about rent until she has to move back with her mother, and then freaking out about paying for air fare to Vegas- so it strikes me as wrong that this was never addressed.

The very end where Kristen Wiig leaves the wedding after telling Helen that, despite her being a stressful nightmare and the villain of the movie, it was nice to meet her, and she gets picked up by the nice guy who had been mad at her for never returning his calls- just kind of happens.

Nice to meet you Helen. *Hug* Oh, hey, it's the man of my dreams. The End.

It's very disjointed from the rest of the picture, no narrative flow that fits with what has come before, and especially no rhyme nor reason for "hug-to-man".

What would have been better would be a quick line from Helen to Kristen saying "I called that guy for you" then turn and THERE is the man of her dreams. Thanks Helen! maybe you're not so bad after all!

But an even BETTER ending would have been hug Helen, okay, all good, but then Kristen Wiig has to go out and find that man of her dreams herself. She alienated him, she clearly hadn't done anything YET to warrant the guys return, otherwise he'd be back already (and this is also the high point of the movie, the reward for the protagonist at the end). Rather Kristen Wiig should have driven along the highway where her policeman love interest is always stationed, parked in front of him, gotten out of the car, picked up a bat, and smashed out her brake lights.

It was her broken brake lights that first brought these two together, it was the police guy that got those lights fixed free of charge. Those taillights are the tangible evidence of the idea that Wiig was using policeguy for quick companionship, versus a real relationship. Being willing to sacrifice them is a fair price to pay to make up with the guy. And then they could turn on the sappy music- The End.

(But I gotta say, when police guy tried to make Kristen Wiig's character bake, after she'd already told him how she wasn't into it, I thought that was super insensitive of him, and I thought she had every right to be mad and leave the area. Still, she did like the guy, so maybe on his tenth voice message she could have responded and skipped all the hardships later on.- But the movie needs those bits of hardship later anyway, so it's all good on that front.)

Ugh, it's 4:30, this is longer than I was planning on staying up writing. I just got into things and now here I am.

By the way, it looks like the moral of the story is "women aren't happy unless they're in the kitchen where they belong" - Hey, don't look at me, it was the movie that made Kristen Wiig's character a failed baker who thought she could never bake again... until she got her groove back. Maybe Kristen Wiig's character was named Stella.