Movie Box Review

The Golden Globes are given out by 80 international journalists whose opinions, when they're not voting on these awards, are of no importance whatsoever to anyone on the planet other than their particular loved ones.  But the combination of a usually entertaining TV show (hosted again this year by Ricky Gervais) and enough years to have established a brand name has created a collective delusion that The Globes Matter, and therefore they do.  The full list of nominees is here, and let's talk a bit about the day's winners and losers--Movies first.

THE FAVORITES:  WINNERS - The Artist, The Descendants and The Help all reinforced their status as the films to beat in the Oscar race, stacking up the most nominations (6 for Artist, 5 for the other two).  Ditto Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Jean DuJardin for Actor,  and Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams and Viola Davis for Actress. 

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE:  LOSER - Is it the 9/11 theme?  The very late start to industry and press screenings?  Not clear yet, but this seemingly sure-thing Oscar contender has been coming up dry everywhere so far.

WAR HORSE:  LOSER  Yes, even with a Picture nomination.  The snub of Spielberg for director, apart from being a reminder of the bad old days when Jaws and The Color Purple could receive Oscar nominations while Spielberg was excluded, strongly suggests that War Horse isn't in the top rank of nominees.

THE TREE OF LIFE:  LOSER - One might have thought that the international sensibility of the Globes would lend itself to Terence Malick's hugely ambitious, equal parts brilliant and pretentious epic.  But one would be wrong, as Tree couldn't manage a single nomination.

THE IDES OF MARCH:  WINNER - George Clooney's mixed-bag political drama had been largely ignored thus far, but the Globes went for it in a big way, with nominations for Picture, Director, Actor (Ryan Gosling) and Screenplay.  Which leads us to...

RYAN GOSLING:  WINNER - Nominated not just for Ides, but in the Comedy/Musical Actor category for Crazy Stupid Love.  But--

CRAZY STUPID LOVE:  LOSER - Despite some of the best reviews of any comedy this year, Gosling's was its only nomination.

MONEYBALL:  WINNER:  Was in danger of being relegated to the acting and script categories, but its Picture nomination puts it back in the big-boy conversation.  (Bennett Miller's absence from the Director nominees, though, means it may not have much chance to win.)

GLENN CLOSE:  WINNER - Nearly fell out of the Best Actress race entirely for a minute there, but although she's clearly a notch below the Streep-Williams-Davis trio of favorites, at least she's back in the running.

MELISSA MCCARTHY:  LOSER - She's been the darling of critics' groups, but didn't make the cut here.  It's worth noting that 8 of the 10 Supporting Actor/Actress nominees are from Dramas rather than Comedy/Musicals, the only exceptions being Berenice Bejo from The Artist and Kenneth Branagh from My Week With Marilyn, both so clearly classy they transcend mere "comedy."

ROONEY MARA:  WINNER - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo hasn't been much in the mix so far, but Mara gets her foot in the door for an Oscar Actress nomination.  

MADONNA/THE PAPARAZZI:  WINNERS - The Globes have never been shy about nominating celebrities so they'll show up at the awards and get some attention, and if it takes giving 2 music/song nominations to the dreadful W.E. to get Madonna to the party... so be it. 

Coming Soon:  The TV Nominees

Few recent movies have arrived bearing such a bouquet of goodwill as the new comedy BRIDESMAIDS.  It marks the movie starring and screenwriting (with Annie Mumolo) debut of Kristen Wiig, generally considered one of the shining lights of this generation's "Saturday Night Live;" it's produced by Judd Apatow, whose best movies have combined big laughs with quirky humanity; it's directed by Paul Feig, creator of the beloved TV series "Freaks and Geeks;" and it's the exceedingly rare mainstream Hollywood movie to feature a cast of women without relying on the usual Hudson/Heigl/Roberts/Bullock kind of romantic lead. It's been greeted with remarkable critical support (90% on Rotten Tomatoes).  It is, indeed, admirable... I just wish it were a little better.

So what happened?  It feels as though the movie is being praised for what it intermittently manages to be, rather than what it often is, which is a frustratingly uneven, terribly overlong (125 minutes, more running time than The King's Speech needed) picture that both discards and grabs for dear life onto the cliches of "women's movies."  The story is a simple framework:  Wiig plays Annie, who's been down on her luck professionally since her bakery went under, and whose romantic life is pretty much limited to mutual exploitation with Ted (Jon Hamm, very funny)--her lifeline is her longtime friendship with Lillian (Maya Rudolph).  The news that Lillian is engaged makes Annie happy but also feeling adrift, and the fact that she's maid of honor forces her to interact with other eccentric bridesmaids (Melissa McCarthy, Ellie Kemper, Wendi McLendon-Covey), and to compete with the rich, grasping Helen (Rose Byrne) for control of the wedding plans.   

There are, admittedly, some scenes between the women, especially towards the end, that have a level of emotional complexity we don't see in typical rom-coms.  But along the way, many of those scenes are as broad and obvious as anything in Sex and the City.  And the Apatow touch is felt with a heavy hand in sequences that force-feed the movie crude physical humor, like a food poisoning that leads to much vomiting and diarrhea, and a scene where the bridesmaids are on a plane to Vegas and Wiig gets accidentally drugged, and it all goes on so long (it's like one of Wiig's SNL sketches from hell) that it felt like the whole theatre should have arrived at the Vegas airport by the time the scene was over.  It's also somewhat puzzling to see the film acclaimed for not forcing romance on its single protagonist when there's a prominent, and obvious, romantic comedy storyline that features a charming Irish traffic cop (Chris O'Dowd) who's got "love interest" written all over him from the moment he appears.  There's been great effort to distinguish Bridesmaid's tone from that of The Hangover, but I'm not sure how the characters in that picture were any sketchier than the women here.

As a piece of filmmaking, Bridesmaids isn't exactly a prime example of craft (which isn't unusual for an Apatow production).  Neither Feig nor cinematographer Robert Yeoman are able to make the movie look better than we'd expect from a well-budgeted single-camera network show, and editors William Kerr and Mike Sale must have been paid extra under the table to let scenes meander on. 

None of this is to say that Bridesmaids is a waste of time:  Wiig is a genuinely unconventional presence at the center of a Hollywood film, and several of the supporting actors, most notably McCarthy, successfully go for broke with their roles.  There are laughs here, and moments of honesty.  It's easy to root for Bridesmaids (and apparently many people are); but like many a wedding guest who's indulged a little too much at the open bar, it's not quite as fascinating as it thinks it is.

(BRIDESMAIDS - Universal - 125 minutes - R - Director:  Paul Feig - Script:  Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo - Cast:  Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Chris O'Dowd, Jon Hamm - Wide Release)