Misses the Mark

Considering the talent involved, this should have been a better movie. It fails for the same reason a lot of these movies do: they try to straddle the line between dramatic character study and raunchy sex comedy. Sometimes it works in movies like Animal House and, more recently, Bridesmaids. However, this film doesn't do either genre well and comes off as flat.

The story follows three friends, Regan (Kirstin Dunst), Gena (Lizzy Caplan) and Katie (Isla Fisher) who reunite for the wedding of a fourth friend, Becky (Rebel Wilson). After the three women accidently damage the wedding dress, they spend the entire night trying to get it fixed which leads to all sorts of supposedly comical situations.

The characters are pretty one-dimensional. Regan seems to have it all, but hates her life; Gena has nothing and hates her life; and Katie is a dimwit who doesn't know enough to hate her life. They are obnoxious, self-pitying, silly girls. I am surprised that a female wrote and directed this film. Its extremely anti-female as the women come off as shrews and the men (for the most part) are decent guys. The movie teeters between trying to show how cruel women can be with trying to be a raunchy comedy. Case in point, on the airplane ride, Gena is telling a stranger (a slimmed down Horatio Sands) how a women decides how much effort to put into a BJ. Its crude, not very funny and when she dismisses the stranger after all but outright offering him the BJ, it just makes her look unhinged. Also, a sex scene between Dunst and James Marsden in a grimy bathroom is both awkward and about as unsexy as it gets (which I think was the point).

Rebel Wilson is the only main female cast member who actually seems to be taking this seriously. Her Becky is a typical bride with typical bride emotions. Nothing spectacular about her performance, but she does come across as real and believable. The four main male cast members (James Marsden, Adam Scott, Kyle Bornheimer, and Hayes McArthur) are non-descript, but Bornheimer's Joe comes off as a nice guy who really cares about Katie, even though she is too dim to realize it.

Bridesmaids did a much better job of straddling the line between female raunchy comedy with dramatic pauses. Bachelorette tries to be a dramatic character study with comedic elements. It can be done, but requires a great script, talented actors, and firm direction. They got one out of the three right, but missed out on the other two.

Lastly, why is the film's title in a singular format when there are three bachelorettes?

My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.