It’s rare to find a comedy with a
certain level of insight and jokes that are actually funny, especially one that
is female-driven. Perhaps that’s why “Trainwreck” was billed as a follow-up to
“Bridesmaids,” that clever film from a few years back that was full of
creativity and craft. I think most people are going to see this film in the
hopes that it follows in the same line of absurd humor and characters, and what
a shame that for all those reasons it is a movie that falls flat across the
board.
You know your film is in trouble
when the opening scene remains the best scene once the credits role (not to
mention the only scene I could remember in detail, no less). We open on a
divorced father describing monogamy to his two young girls by putting it in relatable
terms. “You wouldn’t want to play with one doll for the rest of your life,
would you?” “Wouldn’t you want to play with your doll’s friend every now and
again?”
Cut to present day, when Amy (Amy
Schumer) is an alcoholic, sex-addicted woman who works for a Cosmopolitan-type
magazine and casually dates a beef-cake named Steven (John Cena). While she
uses Steven as a date to the movies, she takes guys home to sleep with to
fulfill some carnal wishes and apparently appease her father’s initial remarks.
Assigned to write a story about
sports which she playfully knows nothing about, Amy meets a sports doctor named
Aaron (Bill Hader), an awkwardly-lanky gentleman who is shy and inexperienced
with women at times and open to exploring sexuality at others. One drunk night
they sleep together, and from there the film takes a left turn into messy and
oftentimes nonsensical territory.
As a romantic couple, Schumer and
Hader could not be a more awkward pair. Their chemistry is so forced that the
film oftentimes felt like a satire on a more traditional romantic comedy. I
found myself waiting for a punch line that never came. As characters, their
motivations are entirely inconsistent. Take, for instance, the scene after
their drunken hookup. Amy is avoiding his calls and texts because she doesn’t
want to form a relationship, but the next time they meet, she admits to really
liking him. To her sister, she admits “he’s different.” Why? Never once is her
character developed to the point where her change of heart is recognized, and
it left the story feeling more and more convoluted.
At times the story becomes
emotional, like a scene at a funeral where Amy delivers an impassioned speech
about a person she cared for dearly. It’s a heartfelt scene that feels out of
place, since the entire time leading up to this moment has us believing that
Amy is a self-centered person who didn’t care as much for this person as her
speech would have us believe. Other moments featuring LeBron James, Tilda
Swinton, and Matthew Broderick feel like unnecessary cameos solely for the sake
of the audience being able to say “hey, I know who that is!”
With a run time of over 2 hours
and a pace that felt like it would never end, “Trainwreck” ultimately became a
fitting title for a movie with so much promise that ultimately crashed and
burned in a pitiful sight.
(Awards potential: No)
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