Trainwreck, the latest film from Knocked Up and This is 40 director Judd Apatow, is just OK which is definitely not what most fans of Inside Amy Schumer (the screenplay was written by star Schumer) would have expected. The show is hilarious, the trailer for the movie was hilarious, the film is not. It delivers a few guffaws and ‘awwws’, but nowhere near the laughs of Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law, or the last gross-out girlie film, Bridesmaids.
Schumer, who plays a character named Amy, is a magazine reporter who lives a hedonistic life of sex, booze and weed. Her only real social connections are her colleagues, her sister and her father who is living in assisted care. Everything else in her life is fleeting, fun and shallow.
The downfall of this film is that Schumer’s character is an asshole. She’s awful to men, strives to please her morally bankrupt boss and is unsupportive to her sister. In stand-up, having a brash persona is an asset. In a romantic comedy, it’s just off-putting as the audience is supposed to empathise with the protagonist. Best case scenario, they want to be the lead character. Next best thing, they want to befriend them. In Trainwreck, this is not the case. Nobody wants a selfish friend who is wasted all the time.
The film’s highlight is guest star Le Bron James as the friend of romantic interest Aaron Conners, played by Bill Hader. While the wry humour of Hader is downplayed, the sheer absurdity of James’ touchy-feely love coach character lifts the script out of a basic ‘nice guy falls in love with total harpie and reforms her’ storyline.
Trainwreck opens nationally on Thursday August 6.
