Let’s get this out of the way right up front: I liked Bridesmaids, quite a lot. It’s true, generally speaking, that comedies about weddings tend to give me hives right from the trailer. But … this one was produced by Judd Apatow, and I actually like most of the films he’s been involved with. The director, Paul Feig, has been involved with The Office, 30 Rock, Weeds and Arrested Development. It was co-written by Kristen Wiig, and stars Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Rose Byrne. All things considered, it looked to be something more than your average wedding comedy.

I’ve heard Bridesmaids described as a chick-flick for guys, that’s actually fairly accurate. At the very least, it’s certainly targeted broadly across gender demographics, carefully balancing a very female storyline (what happens to a pair of lifelong BFFs when one of them gets engaged just as the other one’s life is falling apart) with plenty of broadly comic, guy-appealing gags. The gags tend to revolve around things like drunkenness and poop and puke (oh my!). This is best conveyed in a scene where a tony, white-carpeted, white-upholstered designer bridal boutique collides head on with a nasty case of group food poisoning.

If you’ve ever had and lost a best friend, been a bridesmaid, or just had a crappy couple years where you can’t seem to get out from under a cloud while around you other people seem to have their shit together, you’ll find much to relate to in the script.

Kristen Wiig’s Annie is in such a place in her life, having lost both boyfriend and cake-bakery business. She’s reduced to renting a room from an annoying pair of Brit siblings rather than living with her well-meaning, AA-addicted mom (Jill Clayburgh, in her final role) and has a “dating” life that consists of being the late-night booty call for a well-off douchebag. And Wiig plays the part to perfection, capturing Annie’s strength and humor as well as her fragility and vulnerability.

And speaking of The Groundlings, this film is chock full of former and current members of that illustrious L.A. comedy troupe, which is probably why the comedic timing is so spot on. Groundling representatives include Wiig, Mumulo and several cast members, including Maya Rudolph, who plays Annie’s best friend and bride-to-be, Lillian. Complicating Annie’s sojourn as maid-of-honor is Lillian’s new BFF, Helen. Rose Byrne is tasked with making unlikable, beautiful, purrrrrfect rich-bitch Helen — designed to rub the average woman watching this film the wrong way from the moment she turns, slow-mo, to stun Annie and immediately make her feel frumpy — into a vulnerable, understandable, relatable character. Preferably without death-spiraling into cliches. And for the most part, the script allows her to succeed in this task.

I say “for the most part” because, for all that I enjoyed this film immensely, much of the film does rest on Wiig’s shoulders, with the rest of the characters being a little under-developed. While Wiig is certainly talented enough to handle the task, this is structured as an ensemble piece and as a result sometimes feels a bit broadly sketched; there’s only so much storyline you can cram into roughly two hours of screen time.

That aside, though, Bridesmaids is broadly raunchy, often witty, and frequently hilarious. There’s a lot of physical comedy, some of which pushes the audience right to the edge of “too much,” but Feig knows when to rein it back a bit, and when it’s “just enough.” It’s certainly an enjoyable romp for a girls’ night out, but a lot of guys will dig it too. At the promo screening I attended, I overheard lots of guys commenting that they were surprised how much they liked it, and that it was funnier than they expected. Indeed.

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