The movie Bridesmaids is “an unexpectedly funny new comedy about women in love, if not of the Sapphic variety, goes where no typical chick flick does: the gutter,” according to The New York Times movie review written by Manohla Dargis. The review depicts the movie as starting out as any other chick flick would; a woman is getting married and chooses her best friend as her maid of honor in the glorious journey of planning the perfect wedding. This review shows women in the movie in another light and that women, like men, can have just as much fun while planning a wedding; it does a great job of capturing the women’s “route to a hangover of their own.” It’s clear this review captures an audience of women looking to watch something they can relate to and laugh with as it pushes the boundaries of what women are normally portrayed as. Normally men are viewed as holding the throne for funny movies, and this review makes sure that people know women can be funny too. The review incorporates a great scene of the movie such as when the bride finds herself in the middle of a busy road in a Vera Wang dress fighting disgusting affects of food poisoning; a scene that would not be seen in classic chick flicks such as The Notebook or My Best Friend’s Wedding. The structure of this review is intricate with a continuous theme of a wedding that is not so traditional. The writer adds a metaphor about how the bride “flees like a runaway bride”, although she is really running for a bathroom on account of food poisoning. The writer also says, “for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till misunderstanding, jealousy, other people or just life do us part,” in order to capture the theme that this movie is not so traditional as it highlights the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to brides and their bridesmaids.
So, I really like how this piece was written. It was written very clearly, and it wasn’t hard to follow at all. But I feel that you should have included less information about the actual review and more about how the structure and content was shaped by purpose and audience. Yes, you do include those things, but as I was reading I just kept thinking that it sounds a lot like…well, a review of a review. You kind of restated a lot of the stuff that was written in the actual review and most of what you wrote was background information on the movie. I understand that our prompt required two quotes from the text of our choice, and although you did address the writing prompt, I still felt that it was more like a review of a review. Maybe you should have chosen a different piece we had read in class.
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