Bridemaids film review- a chick flick with bite

After a slow start and wondering and where the narrative is leading, Bridesmaids quickly picks up pace with its lovable characters and seemingly straight-forward storyline.

While it can't be compared to the comedy genius that is the Hangover, Bridesmaids offers a chick flick with substance and slapstick humour, which however is sometimes over milked. At the forefront of this is protagonist and maid of honour Annie, who is on a suicide mission to make her life a living hell after her cake business failed and her boyfriend walked out. No wonder, as she is left with a dead end job at her mum's friend's jewellers, sharing a flat with an oddball British brother and sister,  played by Matt Lucas, a Fuck buddy who makes her feel like shit and vying for her best friend's attention, Lilly, who is getting married.

Despite the obvious twists and ups and downs typical of the genre, every female around the world can relate to life biting you in the butt and a friend turning into a bridezilla as soon as she has a ring on her finger.

But what makes the film is the actor's connections and their portrayal of their stereotypical characters, who all bring something to the mix. Suck up Helen is your Olivia Palermo type, she has money but is extremely self-absorbed. Lillian's fiance's sister Megan is the fat and funny one who is a bruiser and somewhat of a liability, whereas Lillian is miss popular. Rita is the rebel of the group and leads shy and impressionable Becca astray, and Annie is the girl next door.

Of course like all chick flicks, the girl gets the guy, friends make-up etc, and they all live happily ever after. If only that was true of real-life?!

My verdict, Bridesmaids is your typical feel good film mixed with a pinch of real-life and dozens of laughs, but while it may be perfect for a Friday night in with the girls, I can't help but wonder if it deserves all the hype from the national media.

New series of My Big Fat Gyspy Wedding

CH4’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, the series which documents the lives of Irish travellers, English Gypsies and Romany Gypsies, will return to our screens early next year.

Like the first series, next year’s episodes will take the same style and go into more detail around issues around work and money, life on the road, family, health, prejudice, education, cultural differences and the relationship between the different travelling communities living in the UK.

The show will also feature some familiar faces, including dressmaker Thelma Madine, Irish traveller Paddy Doherty and some of the brides from the first series, along with new families.

Lies and deceit- the way of a gypsy traveller?

I will never understand the traveller way of life, lying to your dress maker about the date of your wedding, the desire for a Disney princess wedding, and travelling by horse and carriage for ten days when you can drive for two hours?

On last night's My Big Fast Gypsy Wedding, which explored the prejudice against the minority group, owner of Nico bridal shop, Thelma, was once again in the spotlight. Normally a supporter of the travellers, she was fed lies by deceitful bride to be 17-year-old Priscilla, who let Thelma book a flight to Northern Ireland to dress her for her wedding day, and send underskirts, worth £2,000,only to find out the date was false.

According to Thelma the gypsies are very secretive about their weddings as venues tend to cancel when they hear they are travellers, but not to even tell your dress-maker and future husband the location and date of the wedding is unusual, she said.

Bridgett from Wiltshire claimed she had also experienced venues refusing to take a booking for her wedding because of the stereotype of gypsies. Even the night before her big day her nephews are thrown out of their hotel for being too noisy. But what concerned Bridgett the most about her wedding day was saying goodbye to best friend and cousin Elizabeth. Once women marry they can no longer go out with their single female friends without the husband being present. Bridgett and Elizabeth's first dance together at the wedding reception was more touching than the entire ceremony.

Bridgett and Elizabeth share their last moment alone.

 Aside from weddings, the episode also focused on Appleby, the traveller's Mecca, where each year thousands meet to shop, find a wife/husband and trade horses. However the festival didn't run as smoothly as planned what with many pubs in the village refusing to allow travellers on their premises, so much for a free house, and others using safety measures such as attaching chicken wire to the inside of windows. More the problem was the 'overbearing' police presence and the unnecessary arrests they made at the festival. Organiser Billy said he wasn't standing for it so started a protest and paraded, along with a sea of gypsy men and horses, to the village police station. A truce was made and the arm of the law suggested they rebuild their relationship. This time the gypsies triumphed.

The traveller life according to Paddy- My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding

Ever wondered how travellers afford nice cars, lavish weddings and designer clothes, well I have, it’s through bare knuckle fighting, where men can earn thousands of pounds if they beat their component. And these fights are ugly, the only rules no pushing, grabbing or giving up, unless you want to have a bruised ego.

This isn’t the only unusual tradition of travellers, according to last night’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding- from the perspective of the male, who consider shopping, the home and all that is in it, their children included, the women’s responsibility.

One man who embodies this is Paddy (Pictured) who runs a traveller site in Salford on behalf on the council. However he makes his real money from concreting and in the past fighting.

As one of the more well off travellers he lives in a mobile home with his wife, ‘woman’, decorated in the ‘versace look’, and buys a new car twice a year. At the moment he is driving a white sports car. The man even his has initials on the gate of his home and etched into the entrance of the trailer park ground. But despite this, you feel some empathy for Paddy, who has fathered ten children but only half of survived, of course he does have his 70 odd godchildren. Fourteen years ago his eldest son, then aged 18, died in a car crash with his cousin, something that appears to have hit Paddy particularly hard. But in the traveller tradition they celebrate the life of the dead with a memorial service on the anniversary of the dead each year. Their service consists of lots of drinking and playing their son’s music out loud.

At the other end of the scale is Violet Ann, a Romany traveller from Leicestershire, who unlike many girls from her community has been working for the past five years at a hotel, her manager did not know she was a traveller. She gives up her independence to marry at 22, considered old by travellers, which means moving 100 miles away from the family home (a house) and leaving her old life behind, something she finds hard to accept.