Bachelorette

Thanks to the mind boggling success of The Hangover and its unnecessary sequel, there seems to be this increasingly polluted sub-genre involving disastrous pre-wedding rituals cropping up in the movie world. Sometimes it's light hearted, entertaining and care free, such as the aforementioned Hangover and its 2011 female counterpart Bridesmaids. Other times it's just tired, predictable rubbish giving more fuel to the tired, cynical fire that Hollywood is a rotting modern Gomorrah starting to run out of life and indeed any genuine creative ideas. Harsh? Probably, but then when watching Bachelorette you may see where I'm coming from.

Starring Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan, the story tells of three former high school friends who come together in celebration of their most socially awkward friend's wedding (Rebel Wilson), and in their selfish, petulant ways wonder how exactly their lives got so wrong, and hers so right. Despite this, all chaos ensues on the eve of the wedding night as the bachelorette party quickly descends into an omnishambles of drugs, strip clubs, torn wedding dresses and being reunited with past loves, all before the inevitable redemption scene under a cold sober light.

To be fair the performances aren't quite a loathsome as the concept of the film itself. Dunst excels in playing the icy, uber-b*tch, while Isla Fisher plays up on the coy, naive slightly ditzy role which shot her to minor stardom in her breakout role in the (slightly like-minded) The Wedding Crashers while Caplan equipped with her dour demeanour added a bit of honesty, heart and quick wit to steer a faltering group. Where the film actually excels was in the criminally underused male portion of the cast, such as James Marsden, Kyle Bornheimer and Parks & Recreation star, Adam Scott.

And yes the director did a competent job, I even appreciated the almost John Hughes-esque underlay to the whole thing, but it really was a case of giving the audience the exact same thing we've all seen time and time and time again. It was a tidy, at times even reasonably sweet feature film which shifted the focus off the bride and groom almost entirely. Though constantly  playing The Proclaimers - 500 Miles in the final third of the film was maybe pushing my limits a bit.

The saddest thing about Bachelorette was it didn't even try to be ambitious in its delivery. The script never tried to be funnier than Bridesmaids, or more gruesome than The Hangover, and frankly if you're going to be content putting out an average film, in an already over-polluted genre, which has had notable stand out releases already in the last five years, what's the point really? More from the producers point of view, as for all I know Leslye Headland may have written this way before its superior counterparts were even conceived.

Final Thoughts
Painfully average and largely predictable. The cast didn't let down Bachelorette, the script did. There isn't much else to say or do here. Save your time and money for better films to watch over this Autumn period, or at least films which will stimulate your mind a bit. Shame, because I always root for Adam Scott...

2.5/5

Bachelorette is available on iTunes to digitally download now.