Bachelorette Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
Unresolved issues between four high school friends come roaring back to life when the least popular of them gets engaged to one of the most eligible bachelors in New York City and asks the others to be bridesmaids in her wedding.
While I didn't find myself overwhelmed with the insanity of the 2011 hit, "Bridesmaids," its absurd length and dramatic decline is a Caribbean vacation compared to the forced acid bath of "Bachelorette." Shockingly unlikable and unfunny, this latest round of women behaving badly is crippled by unnecessary excess, botched characterizations, and a calculated round of 1990s nostalgia to appeal to the core demographic. Aching to be irreverent and insightful when it comes to the flattened soul of the thirtysomething party girl facing the cell clank of adulthood, "Bachelorette" would be better off as a soulless farce, not the noxious semi-melodrama it eventually becomes. It's a movie that doesn't know whether to hug its characters or push them off a bridge.
When Becky (Rebel Wilson) announces she's engaged to handsome Dale (Hayes MacArthur), the news sends her high school classmates, high-maintenance Regan (Kirsten Dunst), promiscuous cokehead Gena (Lizzy Caplan), and dim-bulb Katie (Isla Fisher), into shock. Roped into wedding plans, Regan masterminds a night of old-fashioned partying, only to be kicked out of the group when her abrasive demeanor ruins the festivities. Adding to her misery, a session of monkey business with Gena and Katie results in a torn wedding dress, sending the trio into the night on the hunt for a method of repair. Finding little luck with hotel cleaners and dress shops, the gang drowns their sorrows in drugs, while tagging along with Dale's bachelor party, a situation that brings Gena back into her ex-boyfriend Clyde's (Adam Scott) field of vision, while shy Joe (Kyle Bornheimer) attempts to woo a clearly disoriented Katie, hoping to seize love with his old crush.
Making her filmmaking debut is writer/director Leslye Headland, adapting "Bachelorette" from her own play. The material's theatrical origins are generously displayed in the finished effort, with a majority of screentime devoted to three conversational women and their clouded worldview, finding Becky's wedding day to be a wake-up call for their own personal problems. Trouble is, these aren't complex characters set loose inside a delightfully manic creation. Instead, Headland sketches out caricatures, keeping the three leads irritatingly cartoonish with comical limits to personal patience and self-perception, furthering a narcissistic point of view that would blossom in the care of a moviemaking veteran. Headland brings a predictable sourness to the picture to help it compete with bawdy business found in "The Hangover" and "Bridesmaids," but she can't find a clean break from the darkness, eventually attempting to mellow a feature that's dusted with cocaine gags and mean-spirited bully behavior (including the women making fun of Becky's weight behind her back).
"Bachelorette" labors to build Regan, Katie, and Gena as fallible folk, hoping to humanize the misadventure as the story enters its second half, where the wedding dress nightmare spirals into confessions of love and confrontations of old habits. I wish there was a flicker of noticeable light within the lead characters, something to help guide the path of redemption Headland is eager to form. After a ripe first half, where we discover the threesome as high-strung anxiety bombs with drug and self-esteem issues unleashed in a charged pre-wedding party atmosphere, "Bachelorette" eventually slows to a trot to inspect the tepid neuroses. Because a comedy just isn't a comedy unless it tackles talk of abortion responsibility and spotlights a suicide attempt. Headland softens the blow by injecting references to "My So-Called Life" and "Beverly Hills 90210," but it's merely frosting on a withered, misguided confection, deflecting attention away from poorly managed personalities with the high beams of nostalgia.
An HD-shot production, "Bachelorette" arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded image (2.40:1 aspect ratio) presentation. Despite the film's glum sense of humor, its snappy visual identity is one of rich, bright colors, with a vivid, crisp display of neon lighting sources and costuming, which carries unusually strong pinks and blues, with a pleasing preservation of glow that aids the feature's evening atmosphere. Shadow detail is rich and stable, with only a few excursions in automobiles swallowed slightly by solidification. Skintones are pinkish and welcoming, while also fresh enough to detect subtle changes in the health (mental and physical) of the characters. Fine detail is generally quite welcoming here, capturing natural skin texture and fabrics that range from club wear to silky wedding dresses, also permitting the viewer to survey the grungy, chilly New York City locations, with street distances preserved adequately. While it's not an exhaustive picture to study, the party ambiance remains intact with this handsome viewing experience.
Soundtrack selections are a big part of the "Bachelorette" vibe, and the 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix puts these dominant songs to good use, finding a heavy touch of bass when electro beats kick into high gear, while club scenes generally benefit from a pronounced position, setting the nightlife mood without steamrolling over dialogue exchanges, though a few softer areas of engagement remain. Scoring is uneventful but inoffensive, blended into the flow of the film without disruption. Voices are firmly positioned and expressive, with the combustible nature of the performances managed satisfactorily, keeping emotional levels detectible and comedic speeds approachable. Surrounds aren't taxed in full, used primarily to push out interior atmospherics and swing songs around the room, displaying little directional personality. No distortion was detected.
Commentary with writer/director Leslye Headland reveals the helmer to be a fan of the conversation process, sharing her treasured moviemaking chat influences before she dives into her own track without outside assistance. Headland certainly has opinions and keeps somewhat on task, sharing thoughts on the script's extensive development period and her casting triumphs, while highlighting the sections of her own life that made its way into the writing. She's animated, perhaps excessively so (repeating her love for actors and favorite lines), celebrating everything about the movie instead of truly dissecting the production, though her insistence that the movie is a "fantasy" is very strange (there's no evidence of this approach), not helping already dismal interpretations of the effort. Headland's smart and eager, dropping interesting nuggets of technical information and dramatic intentions, but her demonstrative love for "Bachelorette" disrupts her professional capacity to assess the final product in the same clinical manner she initially professes to adore.
Bloopers (1:53, HD) contain a collection of dead-end improvisations and giggle fits from the cast, who don't seem especially giddy to break the moment, perhaps doing so to create a pause in the action. It's not infectious fun.
Behind the Scenes (4:33, HD) kicks off during the L.A. premiere, interviewing the lead actresses on the red carpet, who share their love for one another and the material. Focus quickly turns over to the film shoot in New York City, where the discussion once again settles on platitudes. There's a minor amount of BTS footage to help grasp the scale of daily business, but this featurette is strictly in used car salesman mode.
"Bachelorette" is certainly bawdy, but there's no invention to the mischief that supports an entire feature. Instead, we're treated to clichéd male behavior, mild gross-out jokes (a stripper uses Becky's dress to wipe off her crotch), and weird fixation on cocaine abuse, helping to fuel destructive behavior that's more sad than hilarious. Little of "Bachelorette" is inviting or informative, despite a script that demands an embrace in the final reel.
Anchor Bay Home Entertainment will release on Blu-ray Leslye Headland's comedy Bachelorette (2012), starring Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher. Lizzy Caplan. and Paul Corning. The release will be available for purchase online and in stores across the nation on March ...
