Okay, we’re not sure how Bridesmaids is now over a decade old. But that’s time for you! As it feels like a youthful, modern, trendy kind of film.

And that’s a tribute to its witty (occasionally scatological) charms. It has a bit of a Muriel’s Wedding vibe to it, just without the ABBA music. Let’s revisit it!

Fun, Games, Toilet Humour, and Bridesmaids

Annie Walker (Kristen Wiig) is a mid-30s single lady living in Milwaukee, Wisconsion, the United States of America.

Following the 2008 recession, her bakery shop has folded and she’s lost all her savings. And her SOB boyfriend has left her!

Frustrated and jaded, she now works in a jewellery store and lives with two weird British people in a flatshare. Meanwhile, Annie has a casual fling going with wealthy businessman Ted (Jon Hamm).

He’s super handsome. But a total dickhead.

Thankfully, her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) provides her with needed attention and support. And when Lillian announces she’s getting married to her boyfriend Doug, Annie is invited to be the maid of honour.

An engagement party is thrown for one-and-all.

That triggers all manner of manic events, as Annie meets Lillian’s other friends and starts getting a bit jealous. Particularly of the haughty Helen Harris III (Rose Byrne), who appears to be annoyingly perfect.

Plus, various other friends who appear more successful and complete in their lives than Annie is. Which irks her further.

Annie also comes across the rambunctious Megan Price (Melissa McCarthy), the uncouth and mysterious sister to Doug.

Initially, Megan comes across like unwanted company (and possibly crazy). But she does go on to play an important role later in the narrative! STAY TUNED!

Next up, after the engagement party, Annie and Helen start a tacit competition to be Lillian’s bestie. The pair maintain a frosty, but accepting, relationship amongst their various mishaps together.

But Annie doesn’t waste any opportunity to vent her frustrations in one way or another. Even over a spot of tennis. Rather!

As part of the ongoing bestie competition, Annie organises certain aspects of Lillian’s wedding. And that includes taking everyone, for the bridal party, to a Brazilian steak restaurant.

That’s a big hit with everyone—much to Annie’s satisfaction. Even Helen has to, begrudgingly, admit the meal was a big success.

The group then visits an upmarket bridal store to try on dresses and other wedding stuff. But due to food poisoning from the steakhouse, it all goes a bit wrong.

The result is we get one of cinema’s all-time great bodily functions scenes. Seriously… brace yourselves for this one. It doesn’t hold back.

In and around such antics, Annie runs into Irish police officer Nathan Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd, of The IT Crowd fame).

He actually pulls her over for erratic driving, but the pair begin casually flirting and Rhodes makes it clear he’s interested.

Annie then must decide between the smoking hot (but dickhead) Ted, or the charming and cute Rhodes. Decisions, decisions!

Meanwhile, Megan also takes a shine to Annie and in their budding friendship the former guides her, in her foul-mouthed way, out of her reclusive ways.

The film ends in happy fashion, with Annie reconciling with various folks (including Helen).

And there’s a hint of budding romance between her and Rhodes, with Ted banished into the “hero to zero” department for being a dickhead. Hurray!

The end! And what a fun film it is, too.

Nothing groundbreaking. But funny, heartfelt, and memorable all the same. It’s a well written, very well performed comedy and it’s something of a modern classic, you could argue.

Wiig is fabulous in Bridesmaids, too!

And we had a massive crush on her in 2011 (and now, sure why not?!). But the same goes for Melissa McCarthy, who’s made up to be unattractive in Bridesmaids. Yet she’s hilarious due to her character’s ridiculous personality and McCarthy’s performance and becomes quite endearing.

Bridesmaids is kind of like a modernised chick flick, with quirky humour thrown in, slapstick, Dumb and Dumber type antics, and it doesn’t shy away from toilet humour.

Some critics pointed out it was the human female version of the popular Hangover series, but Bridesmaids is definitely better than that.

And its cleverness was in its broad appeal. It’s accessible as fun popcorn fodder to anyone who watches it, whether you’re a dame or a geezer.

The Production of Bridesmaids

Although set in Chicago and Milwaukee, filming mainly took place in LA. The budget ended up being $32.5 million, with the end result being a strong return of $288.4 million.

Universal reported 33% of cinemagoers were men. And 63% of people who saw the film were over the age of 30. Make of those stats what you will, people!

Directed by Paul Fieg, the screenplay was written by Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig. At the time, Wiig was emerging as a comedy start thanks to her various skits on Saturday Night Live.

SNL has launched many a comedy star’s career and Wiig has proven another success story, with Bridesmaids kind of coming out of the blue in 2011.

And it put Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne (previously an actress in drama films), and others on the Hollywood map, too. But particularly McCarthy, who’s since enjoyed a great career.

Chris O’Dowd (Annie’s love interest—the nice Irish one) was semi-famous in the UK for appearing in cult sitcom The IT Crowd. He was actually going to do an American accent in the film, but the crew loved his Irish accent and demanded he just speak normally.

But… what of a sequel?!

Despite its commercial and critical acclaim, the Bridesmaids 2 sequel was actually cancelled early on. This was largely due to everyone by 2012 being busy with other projects. Plus, all involved generally agreed there was no need for a sequel as the story was told.

Wiig confirmed in 2014 there’s no plan for a direct sequel.

On a different note, Melissa McCarthy was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Such was the impact she made as the mildly unhinged Megan.

And the screenplay by Mumolo and Wiig was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Wiig spends most of her time acting, having starred in the likes of Despicable Me 2 and 3, the notorious Ghostbusters 2016 reboot, Anchorman 2, and a few more serious roles (like in 2013’s Her). She’s been in a lot of TV stuff, too.

But she simply hasn’t done much writing since Bridesmaids.

Feels like a shame. And we hope she spends some time soon to come up, 10 years on, with a new concept to provide a few more laughs. We could all do with it right now, eh?