Film review | Bachelorette - Kirsten, Lizzy and Isla's bridesmaids lack their namesakes' charm

Bachelorette - Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan & Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Dunst and Isla Fisher lead the cast of raunchy chick flick Bachelorette, which strives hard to emulate hit comedy Bridesmaids, but falls short

A raunchy chick flick about girls behaving badly on the eve of a wedding, Bachelorette strives to recapture the close-to-the-knuckle comic mayhem that made Bridesmaids a surprise hit, but the essential sweetness that underpinned the earlier film’s gross-out gags is sadly lacking.

Stars Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher are all in fine form, though, as the trio of friends, bitchy Regan (Dunst), snarky Gena (Caplan) and ditsy airhead Katie (Fisher), who get together for the Manhattan wedding of plump, good-natured Becky (Rebel Wilson, Kristen Wiig’s flatmate in Bridesmaids), their mutual friend from high school.

Scarily self-absorbed, the threesome proceed to create havoc, ripping and staining the bride’s dress while high on cocaine, a mishap that prompts the predictable race against time to fix things in time for the ceremony.

Writer-director Leslye Headland, adapting her own off-Broadway play, gives her cast sharp and smart gags (‘what do you call a Bachelorette party without a bride?’ ‘Friday.’), but her characters behave so viciously and spitefully that their company soon begins to pall.

Released simultaneously across cinemas, video-on-demand and download to own on Friday 16th August.

https://youtu.be/LIRe-sAoY7E

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Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.