I’ll start by saying that as a comedy I was disappointed, but that was my mistake! I went into Trainwreck expecting this to be a straight up comedy with laughs left right and centre, but that was my mistake this isn’t a comedy, this is a romantic-comedy and this film helped me learn the difference. That’s not saying this film isn’t funny, this is a very funny film but it also had serious heart wrenching moments and a massive amount of character development. A romantic-comedy isn’t going to be laugh out loud all the way through, it should have some laughs like Trainwreck does, but it should also have a good relationship at the heart of it and deliver on some level on storyline.
This film should launch Amy Schumer as a comedic actor as well as a writer, she played the self titled character perfectly no veering too far from the persona she shows during her stand-up and her Comedy Central Inside Amy Schumer series.She did impress me with her acting though especially some of the scenes with her dad did play on the heartstrings and gave the character some believable depth. I’m glad Schumer is getting recognised on an international market and I can’t wait to see what films she does next, hopefully we will see her play a different role and not type-cast in the character she plays so well.
The film is directed by comedy legend director Judd Apatow whose previous works include The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. What I like about his films are that he really does get good performances out of his actors and uses smart comedy to still seem believable in everyday life. The pacing of the film did seem a bit slow at times but I just thin if it had been shortened a bit with a few scenes taken out it wouldn’t have taken anything away from the film just made it slightly more enjoyable as a whole.
What Schumer and Apatow did so well with this film was surrounding Schumer with one of the best ensemble casts around today. Although Bill Hader isn’t the ‘typical’ leading man he is the right one to play against the character Schumer plays, he is also one of the most underrated actors at the moment loving his comedic time of Saturday Night Live as well as his dramatic role in The Skeleton Twins. I really like Brie Larson who you could tell enjoyed working on the film and I enjoyed her performance in 21 Jump Street, definitely one to watch. Tilda Swinton was almost unrecognisable in this film, she was funny and shows the diverse amount of characters this superb actress can play. I’ve always liked Vanessa Bayer from Saturday Night Live and I appreciate the cast being used more and more, nice to see cameos from Leslie Jones and Pete Davidson.
The one thing I didn’t like as much with Trainwreck which allot of films seem to do recently is include celebrity cameos. Although I didn’t hate John Cena‘s appearance and he was actually quite funny I just don’t feel he’s well known enough on an international market so any actor could have played the role. The involvement of LeBron James was a bit unnecessary,as a cameo it would have worked well but some of his scenes were just painfully unfunny especially the intervention scene and I just think had the role been given to a proper comedic actor it would have listen Trainwreck to a whole new level.
Not to end on a bad note I did think the final cheerleader scene was absolutely hilarious and I was laughing out loud with the other people in my screening. Trainwreck is clever in including so much sport to entertain the boyfriends and husbands being dragged to the film which helps to appeal to an entire audience. I did enjoy the film and would suggest everyone to go see, not just to enjoy the film but to be introduced to Schumer if you’ve never seen any of her work before. It’s a film I’d be happy to see again, not for a few months but maybe when it began streaming on Netflix or something, I’ll say it’s one of my top three favourite rom-coms so all in all go and see this film!
7/10