Saturday night my friends and I went to see Kristen Wiig’s new film Bridesmaids, and for once (in what seems like decades) the trailer didn’t even come close to doing the film justice. An incredible vehicle for Wiig’s mad skills as a comedienne of legendary calibre, the film gave me so many laugh-out-loud belly laughs that I lost track after the first half hour. I laughed so hard I felt like I had just been put through the ropes of a hardcore 2-hour ab workout, and believe it or not I was barely distracted by the fact that the theatre’s air conditioning system broke down (which led us to get our tickets fully reimbursed by the way). It’s the kind of movie that I know I’m going to watch at least once a year from now on for many years to come, and the message embedded within came with such unexpected force that it inspired me to make one or two minor changes in my life that I’ve been putting off for way too long.
The central theme of Bridesmaids is that of control, and to be more specific — taking control of one’s life fully and completely in order to affect real change and real opportunity. The definition of luck, after all is when preparation meets opportunity. From my perspective, the film taught me that the very things we bitch about needing (and not having) in our lives are the exact same things that surround us every week. We simply don’t act on them in order to stimulate the growth we’re so desperately craving.
As George Orwell himself once famously said, “The very thing that is hardest for us to see, is that which lies right beneath our nose.” What Bridget Jones was to the last decade, Bridesmaids has already proven to be that and more for the contemporary zeitgeist.
