Judd Apatow’s new film, Trainwreck, written by and starring the comedian Amy Schumer (Inside Amy Schumer), was released in theaters in Mid-July. Apatow’s previous film, Bridesmaids, was not a film I enjoyed watching, so when my sister recommended checking out Trainwreck this weekend I wanted to say no (to be honest I did say no, but Ant Man was fully booked). However, Trainwreck — also starring Bill Hader (Inside Out, The Mindy Project) Tilda Swinton, and Lebron James — was a pleasant surprise!
The movie starts out with Schumer’s character, Amy, a veritable trainwreck herself, attempting to juggle life in New York as an aspiring editor at a magazine. She claims she enjoys her life, but as with most films in the romantic comedy (romcom) genre, you know it isn’t true. The story of the film is quite predictable and you know where it is all heading but at the same time it is littered with moments people can relate to — especially family relationships and the consequences of making mistakes. The journey portrayed in the film is cringe-worthy and charming.
The film is longer than usual at about two hours; however, this length is necessary. While the story is your typical girl struggling with commitment issues meets boy etc., the longer length allowed us to fully understand the complexities of the characters and the problems they deal with. As Schumer’s character deals with the consequences of her selfish actions, an ailing father, and a younger sister, we see a character who doesn’t understand what she is missing nor what she is capable of. If the film had been any shorter it would have lost the moments which made it special: the offhand interactions between Amy and her nephew or Aaron’s attempts to understand Amy and her family. Amy’s relationship with her father plays a large role in the film and the length of the film allowed us to see the long-reaching consequences of his actions in her life: from her father forcing a young Amy and her sister to recite “monogamy is not realistic” to his disgust at senior orgies in his group home.
I was expecting a raucous, inappropriate, and vaguely cringe-worthy comedy but instead found myself becoming more and more attached to the cast of characters and their emotional pitfalls. On a base level, the story is very ordinary; it is the acting and the smaller moments which make it charming. Trainwreck is both your typical love story and not your typical love story and is a film I will watch again — and not only for the fabulous heels, Lebron James’ screen stealing moments, and, in my opinion, Bollywood-esque dance number.
