full cast/crew at IMDB
BEST NEW FEATURE
Amy Schumer's new romantic comedy is offbeat and funny, but also contains unexpected depth by working as a character study.
Amy Townsend (Amy Schumer) works for a raunchy magazine called S'nuff. When her boss tells her to do an article on sports doctor Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), she finds herself having feelings for him. However, there's a lot more to Trainwreck beyond that skeletal description of the premise. Instead, the film features a handful of different things occurring in Amy's life at that point in time, including issues regarding her father's time in a senior care centre, her relationship with her sister, and the possibility of a major promotion at work, among other things. In this regard, it's not like your typical romantic comedy that focuses primarily on the relationship between the main couple. Instead, Trainwreck takes the form of a character study, displaying how Amy is shaped by her new relationship as well as other major events that happen alongside it. For the most part, this results in a much more ambitious narrative than the usual romantic fare, and results in greater depth than what might be expected. Amy in particular is a surprisingly complex character, with nuanced personal relationships and a three-dimensional personality. There's a number of elements that have a clear influence on her throughout her arc, and that makes for much more nuanced character development than is seen in many movies.
Particularly key to Amy's character is her relationship with her father, played by Colin Quinn. The character is immediately established in the first scene, where he explains why he's having a divorce by using his daughters' toys as a metaphor for his sexual escapades. This impacts Amy and her sister Kim (Brie Larson) in different ways, with Amy taking his lesson - "monogamy is not realistic" - to heart, while Kim grows to have a love/hate relationship with him that remains strained even at present. Quinn's character remains a major player in the film, now old and sick, and with Amy and Kim struggling around his care. There's also a major divide between Amy and Kim's lifestyles, with Amy sleeping around and being reluctant to settle down while Kim is happily married. This core disagreement is a source for conflict, which becomes much deeper when Amy's perspective is complicated by her feelings for Aaron. Much of the issues faced by the lead couple are caused by Amy's own issues, and her inexperience with serious romance.
However, with such strong ideas supplying extra nuance to the plot and characters, it's disappointing that the film doesn't actually build them into strong themes. Amy's nymphomania often appears to be a cause for conflict, but rarely is the film willing to actually address it in a context larger than Amy and Aaron's relationship. Amy does change significantly as her relationship with Aaron progresses, but this change is by and large unexamined, and while the opportunity is there to make a statement, instead Trainwreck eventually falls back into the usual will-they-won't-they question typical of the genre. Amy settling into a monogamous relationship instead of her previous lifestyle is disappointingly traditionalist for a movie with such complexity, and the suggestions in favour of starting a family are mostly unnecessary. Thankfully, the characters are more than likeable enough to make a typical happy ending feel deserved, especially considering that they go through a lot in this movie. Best of all, the film still leaves us with a subtle hint that it's not smooth sailing from there on out.
The comedy of the romantic comedy is frequently hilarious, but a little uneven. The vast majority of the jokes are the result of Schumer's wit, and for the most part they live up to her popularity. More importantly, her performance is fantastic, conveying the nervousness of her character in this relationship while still proving absolutely hilarious. When the emotional beats come about-and they hit hard-she proves up for the task, punctuating the scenes with the character's reactions. Other cast members like Larson and Hader are also very strong, though the standout supporting actors are actually LeBron James and John Cena, who display surprising chops as comedic actors. Unfortunately, there's also a noticeably high number of pop culture references, and a sizeable quantity of the jokes reference some other media. One particular reference was a bizarre Daniel Radcliffe cameo that is apparently based on a photo that had circulated the web previously, something which I didn't understand while watching, though it was still amusing for the sheer strangeness of it.
While many of these pop culture references are at least moderately amusing, there's also some scenes that are simply awkward, and while these are rather few, they tend to go on too long. At the same time, many of the film's idiosyncrasies allow for some of the funniest gags in the movie, especially in moments where a particularly strange line of dialogue is punctuated by an awkward silence. Much of the comedy is rather crude, but that doesn't necessarily impact its quality, as some of the funniest scenes in the movie are just as crude if not more so, such as the vast majority of John Cena's scenes. And it's not a relentless barrage of sex gags, either, as just as much of the humour is based on performances or characterization. LeBron James plays himself as Aaron's best friend, depicted as frugal and very passionate about Cleveland. James' performance is rather impressive considering the history of athletes unsuccessfully trying to act, and he delivers some of the funniest scenes in the movie.
Trainwreck already succeeds on being an offbeat, unique, and very funny romantic comedy, but the added narrative oomph pushes it over the edge into being a success. There's much more to it beneath the celebrity cameos and sex jokes, and even if it could have said more, it still provides an uncommon level of depth, particularly for its genre. If this is how well Schumer does on her first try, then there's a bright future for her, and even more so for us if she keeps this up.
8/10
Support me on Patreon! Or through PayPal!
No comments:
Post a Comment