‘Bridesmaids’ gets Oscar nod, but can a comedy win?

Bridesmaids received two Academy Award nominations. (AP Photo)

This year the film Bridesmaids surprised the Academy, twice. Comedies often get little credit at the biggest award show of award show season, but the Judd Apatow-produced Bridesmaids got a nod for best original screenplay and for Melissa McCarthy supporting actress.

As a connoisseur of comedy, Luke Burbank doesn’t understand why the gut-busting films don’t get their dues. The panning beautiful scenic shot, that lands on a tearful face and inevitably tears at your heartstrings can be as technically difficult to produce as the scene that makes you laugh so hard you might pee a little.

In Bridesmaids, Luke points to a scene in which Kristen Wiig’s character, Annie, takes the bridal party out for a bite to eat at an exotic restaurant where they all get food poisoning. Later in the afternoon, the symptoms kick in just in time to try on the fancy bridesmaids and wedding dresses. Annie is forced by her arch nemesis to eat an almond and prove that she did not get sick from the poor restaurant choice.

According to Burbank, it’s at that moment when Annie is pouring sweat and denying any illness does him in. Accomplishing the laugh-out-loud comedy that includes great acting and timing is on the same level as accomplishing a dramatic scene.

Film critic Tom Tangney says that the lack of respect is because of what it is: It’s not serious, so no one “takes them seriously.” Take Cary Grant for instance, who Tangney refers to as “one of the greatest movie stars.” Grant’s work was often overlooked because he was in light and fluffy movies: Holiday, An Affair to Remember, Monkey Business and Charade. In retrospect, however, Grant is admired as one of the finest actors of his generation, if not one of the most influential of all time on the silver screen. He was nominated for two Oscars, but didn’t win until he’d retired from film making, receiving an honorary award for “his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues.”

Bridesmaids‘ recognition may seem like a fluke, but Tangney said another raunchy Apatow film received critical acclaim a few years ago. Superbad was full of sex and bathroom jokes that must make it a difficult to edit the movie for TV, but it did have one thread in common with the all-girl gang from Bridesmaids. The heart of the story was the friendship between two high school senior boys, struggling with the regular “getting the girl” and the sustaining of their friendship as they prepare to go off to two different colleges.

“It’s a really smart, insightful movie about the immaturity of guys growing up,” said Tangney. Even though it made critics’ top 10 lists of 2007, it was nominated for only a few well-recognized awards. Now it resides in the cannon of audience-pleasing Apatow flicks that just don’t get respect.

Despite the acting chops you need to get a laugh, and the writing skills needed to make it resonate, few critics have come out saying that Bridesmaids has a real chance at the Best Original Screenplay award. It’s up against The Artist, Margin Call, Midnight in Paris and A Separation. So will the laughs get a chance to really shine? The Academy Awards’ less esteemed little brother, the Golden Globes, recognizes comedy in its own right, Tangney thinks that until one comedy breaks through the barrier at the Academy Awards it will all be for naught. Once a strong, critically acclaimed and box office winner breaks through it could make audiences everywhere rethink how they watch movies.