The typically Apatowian running time (scenes of a leisurely length that are nevertheless often paced frenetically) is on display, though the only person who really benefits from such luxurious story time is Wiig. She is the film's center, literally, with every other character orbiting around her and being spasmodically pulled into her sphere. The "Bridesmaids" don't really spend much time operating as a unit (almost every scene featuring the six of them together is previewed in the trailer), and two of them are near-peripheral (Kemper and McLendon-Covey). Byrne, Rudolph and McCarthy all are given fun stuff to do, but their character arcs ultimately come about from explicitly articulating their problems in a pivotal scene, which often occurs after they've been marginalized for the last while. Only Wiig, who appears in every scene, is allowed to approach genuine three-dimensionality, with her character almost never articulating her issues; instead, we watch her slowly collapse under the burden of past failures and the resultant lack of confidence as a bridesmaid, as she tries to be the maid-of-honour that Rudolph's character would most appreciate, which leads to their brief estrangement. She also has to two love interests to contend with, an overabundance of characters that would would normally threaten to overwhelm the enterprise. However, with Wiig's increasingly empathetic performance pitched as the guiding light, everything else more or less falls into place. The sex tape with McCarthy's character, however, closes proceedings on a sour note. Not only is it a slap in the face to the character and the audience's understanding of her, it's just not funny.
P.S. I realize that there is an ironic lack of humour in this post. Let me be clear: For the most part, the movie WAS really funny.
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