Just stay home.
There is an admirable attempt in the Malcolm D. Lee directed Girls Trip to mix humor with a more serious story of friends overcoming personal and professional adversity with one another's help. However, the attempt is not terribly successful.
This tale of four friends from college reuniting years later for a trip to New Orleans for the Essence Festival may have some laughs along the way, but it is all too easy and obvious, with telegraphed jokes and story elements. The movie (the screenplay is from Kenya Barris & Tracy Oliver, with a story by Erica Rivinoja and Barris & Oliver) does have a group of funny, talented women playing the four main characters, but it rarely feels worthy of their talents.
At the center of everything is Regina Hall's Ryan Pierce. Put forth as the next Oprah, she and her husband, Stewart (Mike Colter), are trying to close a deal at Essence Fest and so, naturally, she goes drinking with her friends while there. While it would make sense that she'd want to have a reunion with these people with whom she's fallen out of touch, and relive the good old days when they were known as the "Flossy Posse," getting as drunk as they do feels like a bad idea, and it's not the only bad idea these women have over the course of their trip.
It is this, adults acting outside their own—and their friends' own—best interests that becomes something of a struggle for audiences to overcome watching this movie. The argument for their various actions revolves around allowing the women to live in the moment, let their hair down, and blow off some steam. All four of the women are (naturally) facing their own serious issues and a couple of nights on the town may be the best way to have Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) let go of the tension of being a single mother or Dina (Tiffany Haddish) not worry about losing her job or Sasha (Queen Latifah) not worry about her gossip blog going under and losing everything she has. There is even an argument to be made for Ryan heading down this route, but the costs for her are greater and the argument might be less convincing.
Then again, there's the fact that Lisa really isn't unhappy with her single parenting life. Plus, Dina doesn't necessarily grasp that she has lost her job. So maybe it's less about a need to unwind than just generally wanting to go out and that makes doing so at such a crucial moment for Ryan a bad call.
Of the four friends, it is Dina who is the biggest outlier. In fact, she's the biggest outlier of the whole film. Dina is a big personality, bigger than the other women; she's also far more over the top and unreal while the other three are more down to Earth. Haddish definitely earns the most laughs, but at the same time one wonders exactly how Dina has managed to get through her life to this point. On one occasion Dina nearly ruins Ryan's deal, making it seem completely impossible that the other women would ever put up with her again, but somehow Dina's actions don't seem to rankle them terribly.
As for Ryan, to talk in depth about her personal and professional issues would be to spoil the experience of watching the film, but by the time the film closes, the only question is why Ryan didn't get to her particular resolution sooner. Disappointing though Ryan's story may be, Hall is more than game. She delivers as a woman truly struggling with multiple, intertwined things who somehow maintains her composure as much and as often as she can.
Perhaps the most relatable of the women, Pinkett Smith's Lisa also works. Watching her unwind over the course of Girls Trip is definitely enjoyable. It isn't new territory, but with less pressing problems to deal with and Pinkett Smith's abilities as an actress, it is successful.
Queen Latifah's Sasha and her worries are never fully explored. Certainly the possible end of her blog and loss of her home is a serious issue and as much as Sasha putting off thoughts/actions about it may be logical, the audience never feels the struggle. Consequently, by the time Sasha has an answer and Girls Trip reaches the character's emotional peak, the moment falls flat.
The film spends a lot of time offering looks at New Orleans and the city's night life (and manages to toss in a number of celebrities). However, the take on the city almost always boils down to the view that New Orleans is a place that can attract big events, features great music, and offers copious amounts of alcohol. It feels very much like a tourist brochure.
The Verdict
Were the jokes in Girls Trip funnier it would be far easier to overlook the flaws which mar the experience. There are some laughs to be had in the movie, but the balance of serious elements and humor never feels right. It is a movie not just where everyone in the audience knows the outcome, but also where the audience won't understand why the characters can't figure it out as well.
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