Trainwreck

Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Tilda Swinton, LeBron James
Directed By: Judd Apatow
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi

[rating:3.5/5]

We’re over the half-way point in the year now, and looking back it’s hard to actually think of any decent Romantic Comedies that have graced our screens or even really any at all. Unless you’re counting 50 Shades of Grey as a romantic comedy, this year’s offerings have been pretty thin. Hopefully we’re in for a change in weather, though, as up and coming comedy darling Amy Schumer makes hear feature writing/leading lady debut in the Judd Apatow directed Trainwreck. Can we expect this to be ‘the’ rom-com of 2015, or will it simply just stand out because it’s kind of the only one we have.

Amy (Amy Schumer) has what some people might call a ‘warped’ view on love and relationships. Thanks to a rocky parental relationship with her monogamy-hating father Gordon (Colin Quinn), Amy isn’t the kind of girl to settle down and have a family like her sensible sister Kim (Brie Larson). Amy is much more likely to get extremely white-girl-wasted and fall asleep right after a stranger has gone down on her. This is until she gets an assignment from her extremely vapid (and extremely British) boss Dianna (Tilda Swinton) to do a profile on up and coming sports doctor Aaron (Bill Hader). She hates sports, he loves sports and at first they clash until ultimately their attraction for each other wins out. Throw in a couple of sports-star cameos and, well, you can figure out the rest.

Trainwreck may just be one of the funniest films of the year so far. Some people tend to look down on Amy Schumer’s brand of humour as too crass, but I personally think it has just the right level of bite, wit and social commentary to make it a complete winner in my book. It’s absolutely wonderful to see her translate her unique and hilarious brand of comedy to the big screen. Is it as amazing as her skit show ‘Inside Amy Schumer’? Not really. Unfortunately the confines of the Rom-Com genre seem a little limiting in certain regards, not leaving much room for as much self-aware social commentary as I would have liked that could have made this a truly unique comedy, but there is enough left over to make the film truly entertaining and to give audiences a taste of her brand of humour so that they might be willing to go check out some more.

As I said, the confines of the genre are limiting and the storyline is in no way surprising, in fact it actually borders on being a little cliché. It’s a Rom-Com flipped on its head, with the female character being the emotionally distant ‘man-inizer’ (Is that the right opposite to ‘womanizer’?) and the male being the commitment-seeking level headed love interest. This role reversal is refreshing, that’s for sure, but beyond that the film plays out beat-by-beat like any other Rom-Com would. Also, like quite a few Judd Apatow films before it, the second act gets a little long in the tooth and attention spans may begin to wander. Luckily, a brilliant opening act and an extremely satisfying end always make up for a slightly lacklustre middle.

Besides being delightfully funny and at times even a little poignant, the real winners here are the cast who absolutely knock it out of the park. Neither Schumer nor Hader really scream ‘leading man/woman’, but their undeniable chemistry and the fact that they are both incredibly naturalistic comedic powerhouses completely win the audience over. It’s actually nice to see two people who actually look like people have their story play out on the big screen. Of course then there’s the sports cameos to help draw in the ‘male’ crowd. They’re a little hokey, sure, but not completely obtrusive. John Cena is actually quite funny as Amy’s slightly homo-erotic kind-of boyfriend and LeBron James held his own (but he’s no Michael Jordan).

Trainwreck has all the elements of a successful Romantic Comedy and then some. It’s funny, heartfelt and has an amazing cast. It also manages to avoid having you hate the main characters, a problem I personally have with a lot of Rom-Coms. Yes, folks, this is it. What we’ve been waiting 7 months for. An actually good Rom-Com for 2015! Go see it, you won’t regret it.