Review: Bridesmaids (15)****

Co-written and starring Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig, it delves into the sexual politics of wedding preparations as two very different gals go to war over the forthcoming nuptials of their mutual pal.

This is a perfect chick flick with a naughty – very naughty – masculine edge. It’s bitchy, mean-spirited and gives the male of the species a thorough kicking with spiked heels. It’s that kind of film. And it’s uproariously funny.

Wiig is Annie, a lovelorn singleton stuck in a cul-de-sac affair with a man who sees her only when he needs her. Rose Byrne is Helen, an elegant, super-rich new acquaintance of Annie’s best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). So when Lillian asks both blue-collar Annie and posh Helen to be her maids of honour, a clash is on the cards. Yet neither rival can predict how manic the stand-off will become...

Bridesmaids starts with sex and evolves into a battle of the fair sex. It’s a film about one-upmanship, back-biting and mad-eyed, desperate ambition. And while the gags come thick and fast they are all rooted in reality and, ergo, acceptably believable.

It begins with the rivals attempting to out-class one another with thank you speeches. A dress fitting becomes a disaster zone as the various bridesmaids fall foul of food poisoning. Cue much perspiration and a race for the ladies’ room. And the trip to the hen night destination includes a spot-on rendition of a drunk on an aircraft which is flat-out hilarious.

Wiig, co-writer Annie Mumolo and director Paul Feig have created a real world of plausible characters who manage to fit all our hen night stereotypes. Wiig, Byrne and scene-stealer Melissa McCarthy (as Megan, the sweaty fat one in the group) together provide some of the biggest belly laughs seen in American movies in years.

A sequel is already in the works.