Bachelorette is a 2012 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Leslye Headland, adapted from her play of the same name. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher as three troubled women who reunite for the wedding of a friend who was ridiculed in high school. The play which the film is based upon was originally written as one of Headland's cycle of "Seven Deadly Sins" plays. The film wrapped production in New York, and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2012. It received a limited release in the United States on September 7, 2012.
Plot
Regan Crawford, a grumpy careerist in her early thirties, is having lunch with her longtime friend, Becky Archer, who reveals that she will marry her boyfriend, Dale. Although secretly jealous and embittered by the fact that her "fat friend" is now engaged, Regan notifies their two other friends, the sardonic cocaine addict Gena Myers and the rowdy party girl Katie Lawrence. Six months later, the women are preparing for Becky's impromptu bachelorette party that evening; Gena flies into New York from Los Angeles, and the four meet at the hotel, where Katie announces that Gena has brought cocaine for all of them to do. At the dinner party that night, Gena runs into her ex-boyfriend Clyde, whom she sees flirting with Dale's younger sister, and Katie runs into Joe, a former classmate and pot dealer. Trevor, the best man, gives a speech at the party, and Gena, high on cocaine, reveals in her toast that she once caught Becky forcing herself to throw up in the high school bathrooms. After the dinner, the women go to their suite, where Katie's gay co-worker arrives and does a striptease for the women, but Becky stops it after he jokingly calls her "Pigface", a cruel nickname of hers in high school. Becky leaves the bachelorette party, and Regan, Gena and Katie are left in the hotel room where they drink and continue to do cocaine. Drunk and high, the three accidentally rip Becky's bridal gown, and Katie gets a nosebleed and stains it with her blood. Regan contacts a friend who owns a bridal store, who reluctantly agrees to open the store for them in the middle of the night. After unsuccessfully searching the store for a dress that will fit Becky, Katie reveals that she can sew, which leads the women on a hunt for thread and a sewing machine. Trevor text messages Regan asking the girls to stop by the strip club where the men are, which they agree to. Gena takes the dress into the strip club's bathroom where she attempts to clean it; there, she has a conversation with a stripper who begins using the dress as a towel and toilet paper. Regan, furious over the situation, gets into an argument with Gena, who insists they confess everything to Becky, and it is revealed in the argument that Gena had an abortion. Gena leaves the club with Clyde and the dress. Meanwhile, Joe attempts to woo Katie, who is heavily intoxicated and high on cocaine, and Regan ends up having sex with Trevor supposedly in the strip club bathroom. Clyde and Gena spend the evening together reminiscing and have sex. Meanwhile, Joe and Katie spend the night in the hotel swimming pool, where Katie reveals that she attempted suicide the year before. Becky calls and asks Regan to come to her room so they can talk; in their conversation, it is revealed that Regan is bulimic, and that Becky covered it for her in high school. Just as Regan begins to tell Becky about her dress, Becky's mother arrives, and they begin to prepare for the wedding. Gena and Clyde head to the wedding in the morning while the party planners are unable to find the missing dress. Gena asks a maid at the hotel to help her make some small touch-ups to the dress before bringing it to Becky; meanwhile, Katie locks herself in the bathroom and overdoses on Xanax. While Regan forces Katie to vomit the pills, she ends up puking all over Regan's dress. Regan, in an attempt to buy time, convinces Becky to ride to the wedding in her pajamas and put on the dress when she arrives. Becky, irate, screams at her mother and Regan in the taxi. Gena arrives to the wedding with the dress. All of the filth and damage has been removed, except for a tiny bloodstain on the centre bodice. Becky ends up walking down the aisle while Regan and Gena sit on a bench and watch the ceremony, where they are joined by Katie, who arrives late. At the reception, Joe and Katie talk and kiss, Regan tries to sleep, and Clyde gives an obscene speech about having sex with Gena the night before. The film ends as the four women make up and dance together at the reception.
Cast
Kirsten Dunst as Regan Crawford, the uptight, intelligent and educated Bee-Face.
Lizzy Caplan as Gena Myers, the heavy smoker, drinker and coke head who got pregnant at age 15, but had an abortion later on.
Isla Fisher as Katie Lawrence, the ditzy best friend of Gena who parties every weekend and is also a cocaine user.
Rebel Wilson as Becky Archer, Regan's best friend who will marry Dale.
The film has received mixed reviews from critics. It holds a 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 100 reviews with an average rating of 5.5/10. The website's critical consensus states, "It has its moments, but Bachelorette ultimately plays it too safe with its trio of unlikeable leads, betraying them with a predictably sentimental final act that undermines the bracingly honest humor preceding it." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Reelviews' James Berardinelli gave the film his lowest rating of zero stars, stating, "Sometimes a movie is so bad it makes me want to go into seclusion and never see another film. Bachelorette is one of those". He would later choose Bachelorette as the worst film of 2012, describing it as "the kind of despicable movie only a troll could appreciate." Stephen Holden of The New York Times, however, gave the film a rave review, stating, “Bachelorette is more tartly written, better acted and less forgiving than male-centric equivalents, like The Hangover movies... it comes at you with the crackling intensity of machine-gun fire". The movie eventually grossed $12 million in theaters worldwide and more than $8 million more on VOD.
