Bridesmaids (2011 film)

Writing

The script, originally titled Maid of Honor, was written by actress and screenwriter Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig.^[21] Friends for years, they met at The Groundlings, a Los Angeles-based improvisational comedy troupe where they wrote sketches with one another, in the early 2000s.^[21] The basic premise for the film originated in 2006, shortly after Wiig was cast in the supporting role of a passive-aggressive cable television executive in producer Judd Apatow's comedy film Knocked Up (2007).^[21] Recognizing her comedic talent, Apatow asked Wiig if she had any ideas for a screenplay herself – a practice which had previously led to Steve Carell's idea for The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) – and she and Mumolo soon came up with Bridesmaids.^[21] Over the following years, writing commenced, with Wiig working on Saturday Night Live in New York City and Mumolo grinding out the script in Los Angeles.^[22] The two would meet on weekends and conduct semi-regular table reads of drafts for Apatow to get his suggestions and notes.^[21] Filmmaker Paul Feig came across Wiig and Mumolo's script in 2007.^[23] When Feig signed on as director and the script got the greenlight for production in 2010, Feig said, "There was an edict from Hollywood where they were all going, 'Okay this is a movie starring a bunch of women. If this works, we'll greenlight more, and if it doesn't, we won't...I was really sweating because if this didn't work then I'm basically the man who killed movies for women for eternity. So, thank God it worked."^[23]

Casting and filming

Several actresses auditioned for the role of Megan, including Rebel Wilson and Busy Philipps, the latter of whom had worked with Apatow and Feig on their comedy-drama television series Freaks and Geeks.^[24] Wilson, who improvised for Apatow and Feig for an hour during her audition, impressed them so much that she was later cast in the smaller role of Brynn. It marked her first appearance in an American production,^[25] and she allegedly received $3,500, all of which went toward paying fees to join the Screen Actors Guild.^[26] Mindy Kaling read for the role of Lillian, eventually losing to Wiig's Saturday Night Live colleague Maya Rudolph.^[27] Rose Byrne initially also auditioned for Lillian, but later took the opportunity to read Helen.^[28] Byrne was eventually chosen as the nemesis because she wasn't a comedian as Feig feared the character would be "coming out to be too arch if we had a funny woman doing it."^[29] Greta Gerwig and Judy Greer also auditioned for unspecified roles.^[30][31]

Bridesmaids was budgeted at $32.5 million.^[32] Though primarily set in Milwaukee and Chicago, principal photography actually took place in Los Angeles, California.^[33] Production designer Jefferson Sage, who has worked with Apatow and Paul Feig since their Freaks and Geeks days, noted that the first fact that appealed to him about the project "was that you had these two disparate worlds: There was Annie's world in Milwaukee, and then there was Helen's world in Chicago. It immediately drew this dichotomy between the rivalry that developed between them."^[33] However, Sage acknowledged that it was a challenge to find "architecture that would give us those Midwestern worlds. Chicago is a beautiful, distinctive city architecturally, and restricted views of downtown L.A. feel like Chicago."^[33] The production decided to use the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden as the location for Lillian and Dougie's wedding.^[33] Additional scenes where Annie meets Officer Rhodes on the highways between Milwaukee and Chicago were filmed in Oxnard, California, which Sage described as a "broad, flat, green area away from mountains."^[33]

Critical response

Bridesmaids received positive reviews upon its release, with praise towards Wiig and Mumolo's screenplay and McCarthy's performance. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 294 reviews, with an average score of 7.50/10. The site's critical consensus states: "A marriage of genuine characters, gross out gags, and pathos, Bridesmaids is a female-driven comedy that refuses to be boxed in as Kristen Wiig emerges as a real star."^[8] Metacritic gives the film a score of 75 out of 100 based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[34] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.^[35]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars of out 4, and said that Bridesmaids "seems to be a more or less deliberate attempt to cross the Chick Flick with the Raunch Comedy. It definitely proves that women are the equal of men in vulgarity, sexual frankness, lust, vulnerability, overdrinking and insecurity ... Love him or not, Judd Apatow is consistently involved with movies that connect with audiences."^[36]

Tamara Winfrey-Harris noted in Ms. that, to her "enduring surprise", despite the involvement of Apatow, and themes that had been "done and done and done", the film passed the Bechdel test of female-driven storylines.^[37]

Critic Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly pointed out the significance of Bridesmaids' success as follows: "So far, the message that Hollywood seems to have taken from the incredible success of Bridesmaids is a predictably reductive one, something along the lines of: Hey, look! Raunchy comedies for women with awesome grossout scenes in the middle of them can be big box office too!! The message that Hollywood should be taking is: A comedy that's raunchy and fearless, and also brilliantly written and shrewdly honest about what's really going on in women's lives, may actually connect with the fabled non-teenage audience (remember them?)."^[38]

Many critics, like Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon (who called Bridesmaids the "first black president of female-driven comedies"^[39]) labeled the film as "a breakthrough for female-centered comedy, and feminist to boot."^[40] It was also credited with proving that "women could pull off a good fart joke as well as the next guy, and did what seemed like the impossible: leading an all-female cast to blockbuster success."^[41]

Despite the majority of praise, the film was not without its detractors. Abby Koenig of The Houston Press enjoyed Kristen Wiig's comedic talents, but disliked the frequency of "raunchy jokes" throughout the film, writing that "we need more funny females getting the spotlight. However, we also need women that can crack you up without making you watch them have diarrhea".^[42] Karina Longworth of The Village Voice criticised the inconsistency of the film's tone, stating that certain scenes have "a kind of dumb crassness that works against Bridesmaids' often smart, highly class-conscious deconstruction of female friendship and competition. Comedy of humiliation is one thing; a fat lady shitting in a sink is another."^[43]

Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson has stated that he is a big fan of the film and also putting it on his favorite films.^[44]

Box office

Bridesmaids surpassed Knocked Up to become the top-grossing Judd Apatow production to date,^[45][46] grossing $26,247,410 on its opening weekend and settling for a strong second place behind Thor.^[4][47] Bridesmaids grossed $169,106,725 at the North American domestic box office and $137,335,360 in international markets, totalling $306,442,085.^[4] Universal reported that males made up 33 percent of the movie's audience and that 63 percent of the audience was over the age of 30.^[47][48]

Accolades

McCarthy was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.^[49][50][51]