BRIDESMAIDS

Saturday night, I headed out with two friends to see the summer comedy hit: BRIDESMAIDS. I was plesantly surprised!

There's some of the gross-out humour you'd expect in a Judd Aptow film here. Mostly this is a well-acted and quite adult story about a woman who has been invited to stand up for her best friend at a moment when she can neither financially afford or emotionally handle the duties placed on her by the bride. Buried beneath the tafetta, overblown showers, barfing, drinking and bitchfights is a woman who needs to be perfect in a moment when her life's a mess.

The bride's new BFF and our heroine's nemesis is the second wife of the bride's fiance's boss: all money, lacquered hair and Martha Stewart on steroids party-planning. For me the scene at the table in the tennis club was worth the price of admission: we see exactly what that woman has paid to have her "perfect" life in two minutes with her stepsons.

There's some truth-telling and honesty here I don't see in most rom-coms and I found that quite refreshing. This is a wedding movie that acknowledges no one gets the benefits of wedded bliss without giving up something of value. It's sweet but not at all saccarine and the writers have thrown in enough over the top slapstick to keep this light. It's a chick-flick but one most guys will happily sit through.