Trainwreck. Rated MA15+ (strong sex scenes, sexual
references and coarse language). 125 minutes. Directed by Judd Apatow.
Screenplay by Amy Schumer.
Amy Schumer’s rise
to stardom has been one of the most satisfying creative journeys to watch in
recent times. Her television series for Comedy Central, Inside Amy Schumer, catapulted
her to fame in the US, and Trainwreck marks her cinematic debut in the company
of Apatow (producer of Bridesmaids and Get Him to the Greek).
Apatow specialises
in taking edgy and politically incorrect comedic talent out of the relative confines
and safety of the television studio and onto the big screen. But there is a huge
difference between something that works in punchy, rude, bit-size segments and
the demands of a two-hour feature-length film, and it is only a particular kind
of talent that can successfully make the leap.
Similar talents,
such as Melissa McCarthy and Rebel Wilson, have survived the transition –
maintaining the rage against all the polite tolerance with which we are expected
to accommodate even the most suspect ideology. In Schumer’s case, it is the
tired old romantic comedy formula that eventually takes both her creative ingenuity
and her breath-taking appetite for bone-baring honesty and unpopular truths,
prisoner.
It’s not that
Trainwreck isn’t funny, because it is, and Bill Hader’s (Fear in Inside Out) good
doctor Aaron is the perfect foil for relationship-phobic Amy. Basketballer LeBron
James is fabulous as himself, and an unrecognisable Tilda Swinton is a treat as
Amy’s boss, Dianna.
Trainwreck’s flaw
is its presumption that our innate individuality needs to be compromised to the
point where we are no longer free to be ourselves. And while that might be a worthy
aspiration for some, the previously subversive Schumer’s self-sacrifice to the formulaic
banality of it all can only be described as a cop-out.
This review was
commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.
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