Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

Bridesmaids

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for some strong sexuality, and language throughout.

Reviewed by: Pamela Karpelenia
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Extremely Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Romance Comedy
Length: 2 hr. 5 min.
Year of Release: 2011
USA Release: May 13, 2011 (wide—2,700+ theaters)
DVD: September 20, 2011
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Relevant Issues
Copyright, Universal Pictures

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Featuring Kristen Wiig … Annie
Rose Byrne … Helen
Jon Hamm … Ted (uncredited)
Terry Crews … Boot Camp Instructor
Maya Rudolph … Lillian
Rebel Wilson … Brynn
Melissa McCarthy … Megan
Jessica St. Clair … Whitney
See all »
Director Paul Feig
Producer Universal Pictures
Relativity Media
Apatow Productions
Kristen Wiig … co-producer
See all »
Distributor
Distributor: Universal Pictures. Trademark logo.
Universal Pictures

“Bridesmaids” tells the story of Annie (Kristen Wiig) and her BFF Lillian (Maya Rudolph). The film starts with a very disturbing depiction of Annie and her “sex buddy” Ted (Jon Hamm) having sex, the two are shown having sex in different positions (sound effects included), but no nudity is overtly shown. Sadly, the opening sets the tone for the entire picture.

Annie is a dispirited woman, who recently lost her bake shop. Her life is a mess, to say the least. She learns that her best friend Lillian is getting married, and she is asked to be her maid of honor. At the engagement party, we are introduced to the bridesmaids, and a rivalry forms between Annie and Lillian’s other friend, Helen (Rose Byrne). From there, we witness a series of lewd, tasteless and obscene events disguised as comedy. From the dress fitting to the bridal shower, nothing is safe from the debauchery. There is an attempt at redeeming value with the introduction of the character of Officer Nathan Rhodes (Chris O'Dowd). He is portrayed as a nice guy who falls for Annie. That redeeming hope is somewhat short lived, as the two have relations outside of marriage.

The story is predictable and unpredictable, at the same time. I was pretty certain of the ending, but unprepared of how gross it would get before I got there.

I counted 50+ swear words including s***, f***—pretty much you name it. Blasphemes are, as usual, unnecessary, but present (around 13). Sexual innuendo and upfront sexuality are on the extreme side, from the opening scene through the credits. There is some drinking, mostly champagne, and minor drug use.

As I watched the film, one verse kept coming back to me.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” Romans 12:2.

We live in a fallen world, and in this world a movie like this is considered funny, and maybe even good. We as Christians should expect this and use discernment in our movie choices. While there are a few humorous parts, I found it hard to laugh. Honestly, I would have left after the first 5 minutes. I cannot recommend this picture.

Violence: Mild / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Extreme

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Positive
Positive—Why do I give such a gross movie a positive marking? Because, to mature Christians, this is a clear indication of how people live when they live according to materialism, without Our Savior, Jesus Christ. Many of us do not appreciate the gifts of Christ, unless we see the horrible, mindless degradation that ordinary women sink into without a moral compass. What we see is out of control jealousy, disobedient children, mindless casual sex, exaltation of rich, immoral playboys who use women, denigration of kind men, rapacious competitiveness in personal relationships, viciousness, foul language, etc.

This is not a Christian movie. It has extreme toilet humor, repeated foul language and repeated casual sex. The attack on the conservative young wife never really got off the ground. I think that must have been lost on the cutting room floor. It was likely unpopular with test audiences. The attack on Helen—Rose Byrne’s character—by the female lead is nothing short of disgusting. It is about the depth of the jealousies concerning money when people having only a material dimension to their lives run wild. See all »
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
Blue, age 53 (Australia)
Positive—I went and saw this movie with a bunch of friends. I found it hilarious! The first scene was over the top and could have been left out, but I found the rest of the movie to be one laugh after the other. I would recommend this movie to people based on the humor, but if you don’t want to see the first scene, just arrive a little late, you won’t miss much.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4
Julie, age 19 (USA)
Neutral

none

Negative
Negative—I need to mark my opinion as negative, despite the very touching and well nuanced performance by Kristen Wiig, who brilliantly plays the pivotal role as a maid of honor whose life spirals out of control. The fact that she does ultimately learn that her casual sexual lifestyle is not bringing her any happiness and that she has deep issues that get her fired, not to mention her many other problems, does not make up for the constant over the top bathroom humor and raunchy behavior smeared with immorality in every direction. Wiig’s performance and the theme of her searching for herself do give depth to this movie, and they do it very well.

If you like Saturday Night Live humor, then this has its funny moments. I do, however, regret that movies like this get such high secular review scores. The movie reflects much of the spiritual malaise in our society. It’s all sexual thematics in this movie, with no violence, but still…
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4
Halyna Barannik, age 65 (USA)
Negative—I’ve decided not to reveal to ANYONE that I actually saw this movie. The opening scene is so disturbingly pornographic that I had to cover my ears and close my eyes. I know that an R-rating is given to films that have language, suggestive material, and adult themes but this movie is SO over-the-top nasty that I can’t even describe it in terms that won’t offend. It’s clear that the creators of this film were trying to keep up with the times by pushing a low-class, frat-girl, poor-me, sleep-around, base-humor ideal of how women behave when no one is looking.

There is a difference between smart humor and base humor. This movie is evidence of the latter. Skip it!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4
Diana O, age 42 (USA)
Negative—This movie was a disappointment. I went expecting a fun chick flick type movie. Though it is billed as “funniest movie of the year,” I did not agree. The movie starts with an explicit sex scene and the main character continues to have sex throughout the movie. There is a disgusting scene in which everyone gets food poisoning and is struck with foul forms of sickness, which they show in detail. I never related to the main character. She is aimless, mean-spirited and sad. In fact, I walked out before the end, wishing I had done so much earlier. No one needs to see this, least of all kids!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 2½
Nan, age 49 (USA)
Negative—I agree with the others who have written about this movie… skip it!! It is extremely negative and offensive. The first scene alone was terrible and extremely difficult to sit through. I thought things might get better, but, unfortunately, there were raunchy scenes and swearing throughout the film. This movie was based upon a cute story and could have been well done. It still amazes me that so many of today’s movie writers think vulgar content is needed, funny or entertaining. I do not believe that most Americans find this to be true.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4
Deborah, age 48 (USA)
Movie Critics
“…Bridesmaids deftly navigates the ins and outs of platonic-pal sentimentality while recognizing and reveling in the sublime pleasures of gross-out nastiness, which—via a raunchy food-poisoning sequence set in a bridal gown shop that culminates with a gratuitous vomiting-in-the-hair gag—the film ultimately and effectively claims as not just the province of guys’-guy comedies. …”
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine
“…Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Extreme… at least 23 “f” words… …Much sexually related dialogue is present, along with one fairly graphic sex sequence in which the main character and her boyfriend make love in numerous positions. …”
ScreenIt
“…Obviously intended as a femme version of a rude and crude boys-gone-wild comedy, complete with projectile vomiting, inconvenient defecation and fusillades of F-bombs, ‘Bridesmaids’ sorely lacks the saving grace of being consistently funny. …”
Joe Leydon, Variety
“…an unexpectedly funny new comedy about women in love, if not of the Sapphic variety, goes where no typical chick flick does: the gutter. … honest laughs with, and not solely about, women. …”
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“…about a group of women friends who are as unbehaved as the guys in ‘The Hangover.’… The movie does a good job of introducing a large cast and in particular keeping all the members of the bridal party in play. … the movie has a heart. It heals some wounds, restores some hurt feelings, confesses some secrets, and in general, ends happily…” [3½/4]
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“…a movie that is a raunchy hoot, that plays to that demographic and yet doesn’t lose its femininity. …” [3/4]
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
“…Kristen Wiig scores in an erratic gross comedy that truthfully connects where it counts. … while there is plenty of sex-oriented humor to follow (some of which feels awkwardly forced), what you actually get is a human comedy with empathetic appeal and a disarmingly candid take on feminine foibles. …”
Todd McCarthy, Variety
“…testicular teammates like director Paul Feig and producer Judd Apatow drag the action into some foul territory. But when Wiig, who co-wrote the script with Annie Mumolo, is allowed to swing like a girl, she hits a home run. … Like a good funeral or a bad wedding, ‘Bridesmaids’ will make you laugh until you cry.”
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“…more engaging elements are often accompanied with an unsavory blend of Apatow’s sexually charged humor… talk dirty, expletives and frank bedroom discussion… Admittedly, some scenes are so funny that you’ll end up missing the next five minutes of dialogue because the audience is laughing so loud. But like its fellow R-rated comedic counterparts, other moments seriously cross the boundaries of good taste…”
Christa Banister, Crosswalk
Comments from non-viewers
Negative—I watched maybe five minutes of this film before I walked out. It opened up with pornographic sex. I was shocked that it did not have an X rating. Do they even give X ratings anymore? …It shows how our society has taken a nose dive. I only went to the movie in the first place because I’d heard it was very funny. I could not allow myself to be subjected to what I saw, so left as soon as possible.
Terry, age 56 (USA)
Negative—My husband and I left the movie about an hour in, although we almost left after the first scene. On the ride home, we both talked about how terrible this movie made us feel. This is an X-rated film, and it saddens us that some impressionable teens will no doubt see this film. I almost always check this site for reviews, but did not in this case—big mistake.
My Ratings: Moral rating: / Moviemaking quality:
Beth, age 47 (USA)