In 2011, Paul Feig directed the now iconic Bridesmaids, based on the script by Annie Mumulo and Kristen Wiig. This was, for better or worse, the first truly great female-led mainstream comedy, and the combination of the talented cast, the hilarious script and the emotionally-resonant execution resulted in a wonderful film. It was also one of the first hugely-successful romantic comedy films that showed women as being far more than just one-dimensional figures of desire and neuroses about finding their perfect match (as well as being the breakout for the extraordinarily talented Melissa McCarthy, one of our finest comedic actresses working today). It started a wave of films that have crafted a new kind of cinema, one that proves that women can easily lead a film such as Bridesmaids, a box-office sensation as well as a critical darling. One of the more recent films that have followed Bridesmaids (sometimes in what seems to be directly inspired by the film) is Malcolm D. Lee’s Girls Trip, a film that has some flaws but is ultimately still a rewarding, hilarious comedy film that breaks boundaries as well as being a really good time.

Ryan (Regina Hall) is a highly-successful author and lifestyle guru who is dubbed “the second coming of Oprah Winfrey”, and alongside her husband, former athlete Stewart (Mike Colter), she is well on her way to being a worldwide sensation. Her ascent to fame results in an invitation to be the keynote speaker at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, and she takes the opportunity to invite a trio of her longtime friends, “The Flossy Posse” to accompany for what they dub a “girls trip”. These friends include divorced nurse and paranoid, over-protective mother Lisa (Jada Pinkett-Smith), tabloid journalist Sasha (Queen Latifah) and Dina (Tiffany Haddish), who has recently (and unceremoniously) been fired from her job for assault of some kind. The quartet reunite for a weekend, and over the course of the trip, they have their fair share of laughs and periods of familial joyfulness, as well as the cliched moments whereby their friendship is tested, and the past and all its demons come back to haunt our protagonists as betrayal (both romantic and otherwise) result in strain being put upon the relationships within this film. However, this is not a groundbreaking or innovative film, so there is the predictable happy ending, but it works extremely well, for reasons we will discuss in due course.

A film like Girls Trip thrives solely on its cast, and the chemistry between them. The four leads of this film are all very good, and Lee brought together a quartet of very talented women to play these characters. Queen Latifah, arguably the biggest star out of the four, is very good as the gossip columnist Sasha who has to deal with struggles, both personal and professional. However, she is overshadowed by the rest of the cast, and she does not get the opportunity to showcase her talents as much as she usually does. Regina Hall, who is the core of the film, is wonderful as Ryan, the lifestyle guru well on her way to being a major presence in the lives of many people. Hall grounds the film and gives it far more emotional gravitas than one would expect, with her empathetic and soulful performance of a woman doing her very best to put on a brave face in spite of the various challenges around her, and attempting to appear as the consummate professional even when her personal relationships around her are crumbling, is really great. Hall centers this film, and the story is built around her. While she may lack some of the more bombastic moments that are given to some of her co-stars, her performance is not any less astonishing.

One person that earned a lot of praise for Girls Trip was Tiffany Haddish, for her scene-stealing performance as the bawdy and eccentric Dina. While Haddish was very good, I found her performance to be far too unrealistic and considering I do consider myself an admirer of her comedy (and her ascent to fame has been heart-warming to say the least), I found myself somewhat disappointed in Haddish’s performance here. She seemed to lack much of what makes a character like hers work – complexity. She appeared to be nothing more than a vessel for the most outrageous jokes, and while there are some very brief moments of emotion in her performance, much of what Haddish achieved here was just a result of how excessive her characterization of Dina was. That is not to say Haddish was not hilarious and endearing, but considering the strength of the other performances from her co-stars, Haddish felt a little under-developed, and almost like an afterthought, an attempt to add in another quirky character, which is clear through the fact that her character does not have an arc, nor any substantial background. The person that I felt deserved the praise was Jada Pinkett Smith, who is wonderful in the film – her portrayal of an archetypal overprotective mother who struggles to let loose over a weekend of intended debauchery seemed to be the most real and fascinating of the quartet of performances. She uses the character’s neuroses and discomfort exceptionally well and conveyed the conflicted nature of the character perfectly. The cast has great chemistry, and each serves their part, but it is Hall and Pinkett Smith that really shine the brightest, through their dedicated and meaningful performances.

The reason why Girls Trip works so well is because of how predictable it is, which is arguably a very odd sentiment to make, to consider the obviousness of a film to be its biggest merit. As I said above, Girls Trip was not a groundbreaking film, and Lee was clearly not attempting to make something that would redefine cinema. Rather, he used a tried-and-tested format in a way that was refreshingly honest, extracting all the most reliable aspects of similar films and using them to great effect. It is an unprepossessing, straightforward comedy film, with the same familiar beats present in preceding films, and somehow, this works far better than if they had decided to make something entirely unique. The success of Girls Trip is reliant on the fact that it is familiar and thus is a comforting, entertaining example of true escapism. There is nothing too complex or convoluted in this film, and it conveys its very simple themes in a way that is hilarious but meaningful. The jokes work well because of how earnest the execution of this film was. It does not assume anything about the audience, and clearly was attempting to be only one thing in particular: an unhinged, unrestrained good time, and it succeeded on virtue of being a delightful comedy that may not be entirely innovative, but it is able to play off the best aspects of its cinematic predecessors wonderfully.

Another reason behind the glowing success of Girls Trip is that its major theme is that of friendship, and despite the undercurrent of romance and sexual conquest that flows through this film (as was the case in films like Bridesmaids and The Hangover to an extent), the ultimate root of this film, and what makes it so emotionally-resonant, is that it is a terrific and meaningful ode to friendship. The chemistry between the cast is massively important, but it is clear that the filmmakers were striving to show the trials and tribulations of a modern friendship, and how rough times causes rifts between friends that could threaten the goodwill and the years of connection between individuals. It is not entirely without its predictability, and there are some obvious artistic liberties taken that arguably prevent it from being entirely realistic, but for the most part, Girls Trip is a lovely portrait of friendship and how the emotional connections we form with others ultimately draw us back to each other. Once again, while it is predictable, it is comforting and endearing, and the precise reason why Girls Trip is such a wonderful film.

Girls Trip is not perfect. It has many flaws, such as often trying to use the success of a bawdy comedy like Bridesmaids in its own way, without much of the same meaningful emotional resonance. However, Girls Trip is a lovely and endearing comedy about friendship, a simple and straightforward film without any intention of redefining the genre or providing world-shaking commentary on the themes it focuses on. It is a well-meaning, hilarious and heartfelt comedy about friendship, and while it does not do anything new, it didn’t need to, serving its purpose as a delightful comedy that does not take itself too seriously, rather opting to be pure, unadulterated fun.