Film Review: Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan in Mediocre ‘Bachelorette’

Submitted by BrianTT on September 6, 2012 - 2:37pm

CHICAGO – “Bachelorette,” now playing On Demand (and doing quite well on that format) and opening in theaters tomorrow, is a modestly successful comedy with some very talented stars stuck with an incredibly inconsistent script. The performers do their best and there are some scenes that work but the overall piece is remarkably forgettable, reminding viewers of “Bridesmaids” and “The Hangover” while failing to match either in terms of laughs.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

The obvious comparison is going to be Kristen Wiig’s smash hit “Bridesmaids” but this raunchy comedy actually plays more like a female version of “The Hangover” in the way it presents a quartet of semi-friends, hides one of them for most of the action, and lets the other three run wild in a world of profanity, cheap sex, strippers, and copious drugs. The biggest problem with “Bachelorette” is that it’s just not that funny and attempts at dramatic honesty fall even flatter. The movie is remarkably tonally messy as it veers from dark veins of humor to sentimentality to honest drama to physical comedy to straight-up raunch. It feels haphazard and unrefined like so many awful comedies but an extremely talented cast saves it from total disaster.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Bachelorette” in our reviews section.

When Becky (Rebel Wilson) tells old high school friend Regan (Kirsten Dunst) that she’s getting married, the bitter Regan can’t hide her disdain. How dare the girl once known as “Pigface” get married before the popular Regan? She calls other friends Gena (Lizzy Caplan) and Katie (Isla Fisher) to join her in her bitchy pity party. Of course, Becky invites Regan, Gena, and Katie to the wedding and we flash forward to the 24 hours of disaster before the big day.

The night before Becky’s nuptials, her three “friends” attend a party in her honor and embarrass her to the point that she basically un-invites them from the wedding. Drowning their sorrows in cocaine, the three girls decide to play around with Becky’s dress. It rips and the rest of the movie consists of them trying to get it fixed, hooking up with a trio of guys, and dealing with their many, many personality issues.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Bachelorette” review.

“Bachelorette” stars Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson, Kyle Bornheimer, James Marsden, Adam Scott, and Ann Dowd. It was written and directed by Leslye Headland. It is rated R and is now available On Demand before opening in theaters on September, 7, 2012.