Movie Review: Trainwreck

Monog-amy ain’t for everyone.

Those hoping Amy Schumer’s first big-screen foray would be as ribald and incendiary as her Comedy Central sketch show might be mildly disheartened by Trainwreck.

But, it’s undeniably a marriage that mutually benefits director Judd Apatow and his ascendant lead. She gets a platform to ease her way into mainstream superstardom – and then, perhaps revolution? – and he resuscitates a flailing career by sidling up to the most talked-about comedian in America.

You know, I’m rooting for these kids.

Schumer plays Amy Townsend, a promising journalist slumming it at men’s mag S’Nuff, presided over by a fake-tan-toting Tilda Swinton.

When Amy’s not writing soul-crushing, gender-politics-regressing prose, she’s cheating on her boyfriend Steven (John Cena; that John Cena). What few slivers of free time she has in between these activities are taken up by drinking. It’s like the old ‘jar of life’ parable. You’d think Amy’s days are full, but then look how easily alcohol fills the gaps.

Much of her current struggle with monogamy – and functioning alcoholism - can be chalked up to her relationship with rascal dad Gordon (Colin Quinn).

He’s been lumped in a retirement village and is avoided by Amy’s settled-down sister Kim (Brie Larson) as if he were the plague; the sexist, racist, politically incorrect plague. That leaves Amy to keep him company and entertain his views on men being from mars, and women being from whichever planet annoys Mars the most.

So, yeah, we have an idea why she thinks matrimony is for the birds.

It’s not until Amy begins to profile, and then fall for, superstar surgeon Aaron Conners (Bill Hader) that she discovers having a long-term partner is actually pretty sweet, even if her internal programming remains set to ‘self-destruct’.

Yes, it’s all so heteronormative, certainly coming from the woman who eviscerated couplings in sketches like “Say Fine to the Shirt” and “How Will This Relationship End?” Schumer is armed with the skills to tear rom-coms a new one, if not an additional two or three. Why does she pull back here?

For that explanation, we turn to the posters, which tell us Trainwreck was brought to us “from the guy” who gave us Bridesmaids.

From 2005 to 2008, Judd Apatow helmed acclaimed, incisive hits like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, and produced now legendary comedy fare like Superbad and Step Brothers. These were his salad days; when ‘bromance’ was his own personal cottage industry.

However, to quote Axl Rose, nothing lasts forever, and audience’s hearts did indeed change.

His reputation as a guaranteed hit-maker and reliable laugh-getter was tarnished by his previous two James L. Brooks-ian efforts behind the camera: the autobiographical Funny People and almost-literal home movie This Is 40.

No wonder he’s going around touting Bridesmaids instead.

Perhaps the promotional material for Trainwreck diminishes the role Schumer had in creating this thing. Besides starring in it, she also wrote the script, torn from the bawdy pages of her own life.

As anyone who’s seen Inside Amy Schumer has known for three seasons, this is a comic with a seemingly endless well of talent, as a performer, cultural critic and fearless personal excavator.

Still, the ads don’t lie. This is a Judd Apatow movie, starring Amy Schumer. Any doubts you might have about its authorship subside as Trainwreck creeps past the two hour mark in its sullen third act. “Yeah,” you’ll nod, as the laughs dry up and the dramedy of it all just sort of hangs there without consequence or progress: “This is definitely a Judd Apatow joint.”

That’s why it’s such a disappointment when Trainwreck side-steps subversiveness and instead falls back on the genre’s boring-est habits. (Apatow’s traditional third-act growing-up/ apology tour montage is as old hat as anything you’d find in something by Nancy Meyers.)

Yet, it’s not enough of a disappointment to overshadow the steady stream of laughs that come in Trainwreck’s earlier acts. And besides, the ultra-adorable and too-funny Hader (formerly of Saturday Night Live) makes as convincing a case for abandoning singledom to find your lobster we may ever see in a rom-com.

Swinton, as mentioned, crushes it. LeBron James, not necessarily convincing anyone that he could play a role other than ‘himself’, is nonetheless endearingly hilarious as Hader’s friend, doling out aw-shucks relationship advice, despite being maybe the biggest and best sportsperson on the planet.

(This is surely the first film to feature the unique starring credits “with Tilda Swinton and LeBron James,” unless I missed him in Orlando.)

That Amy Schumer, though. She’s consistently hilarious, and even when the movie transitions into trite convention, Schumer reveals a sincere side she’s not shown off before. Dramatic heft is ultimately what drags Trainwreck down, but there’s no denying that, as an actress, Schumer is equipped to carry it.

3.5/5

In cinemas August 6. Rated MA15+ for strong sex scenes, sexual references and coarse language.