1643. Bachelorette (2012)

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, Isla Fisher

Director: Leslye Headland

Running Time: 87 mins

Bachelorette is an American film about three friends who, on the eve of the wedding of a woman they used to ridicule back in high school, get themselves into deep trouble when they abuse their positions as bridesmaids on a drunken night.

Take the brilliant premise of The Hangover. Then take three great actresses. You’re in store for a fun and raucous comedy, right? Nope. Unlike the film it’s so desperately trying to be, Bachelorette is a painful and insufferable movie, featuring poor performances across the board, a boring story, irritating characters and absolutely terrible humour.

There’s so much about this film that annoyed me, but what disappointed me most was the fact that its A-list cast is completely wasted here. Not just the fact that they’re drunk out of their minds, but the comedic talents of the likes of Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher, as well as Kirsten Dunst’s acting brilliance, never get a chance to shine in this movie, as they’re incredibly thin characters and absolutely awful dialogue.

For example, Caplan, who is normally great at playing a loud-mouthed and forward character, only spends her time swearing and shouting rubbish in this movie, and never turns that into anything comedic. Isla Fisher is made to act drunk/high for the entire duration, in a joke that wears thin within seconds, whilst Kirsten Dunst plays a humourless and boring woman that seems to have no personality to make her an entertaining character.

But the worst thing by a mile is the fact that the leading trio have no chemistry. In a better film, I’m sure that the three could all work well together, but the fact that you’ve got these three starkly different facades who spend all of their onscreen time together bickering makes their friendship completely invisible, and gives the actresses no chance to carry off any moderately entertaining rapport.

The story doesn’t help to improve their chemistry. Again, the film is modelled around The Hangover, following three friends on an unthinkably crazy night just before a wedding of their friend who they make fun of. However, in The Hangover, the Wolf Pack are together on their mad overnight trip, and have a sense of angry banter between them.

In Bachelorette, however, the three friends only argue (and I mean screaming) when they’re together, and then spend half the movie apart chasing men around. It’s not a story of friendship, and it’s definitely not a story of any likable people trying to save the day after they royally mess up, but instead an hour and a half of watching tedious, irritating people get into predictable and unfunny scenarios again and again and again.

On the whole, I pretty much hated Bachelorette. Apart from wasting the strong premise of a film like The Hangover as well as the talent of its leading performers, it’s a tedious, unfunny and straight-up insufferable movie that features next to no moments of entertainment or intelligence, and that’s why I’m giving it a 3.4.