I assume Amy Schumer’s goal in Trainwreck is to make a romantic comedy for people who normally don’t like rom-coms, and she seems to have pulled it off. Her debut as a leading woman turns a lot of the usual love story clichés on their heads, subverting the way most women are portrayed in them.
She tries to avoid as much of the usual formulas as possible- instead of the luckless “wrong” guy being a conniving jerk, he’s simply a naïve but well meaning dude who’s clearly with the wrong woman. And the main male love interest is realistically likable- as opposed to being another sad sack guy who just needs a competent girl to clean up, Bill Hader’s Dr. Aaron Conners is a nerdy is but still intelligent and successful sports doctor, while Amy Townsend (Schumer) plays the fool.
Not content with being arguably the highest regarded writer at the crass men’s magazine S’nuff, Amy spends her off hours cruising around her unassuming musclebound boyfriend Steven (John Cena- judging by the real Schumer’s friendship with Dolph Ziggler, I assume she’s a wrestling gal) and partying with numerous other men, with hit or miss results so far as sexual satisfaction. As their relationship inevitably ends, her boss (an imposing but funny Tilda Swindon) assigns her a cover article about Conners, in the hopes that Amy’s vocal dislike of sports will potentially spice up the story.
Amy’s fear of commitment stems from the influence of her irascible father Gordon (Colin Quinn), his own infidelity and the deterioration of his marriage. Currently suffering from multiple sclerosis, when Amy and her sister Kim (Brie Larson as an adult) were children he subscribed to the Kanye West philosophy and preached to them the evils of monogamy, making a bigger impression on Amy than Kim into their adulthood. Aaron’s natural kindness manages to put a few dents in Amy’s defense shields, but at first they seem like total opposites.
Hader and Schumer are very charming together, especially because of how forthright Conners is and Amy’s shocked reactions to his honesty. As seemingly pathetic as her character is, there’s still a yearning for satisfaction with her that keeps the audience invested in her goals, despite how much she screws up. When the story gradually becomes more heartfelt and sentimental there’s still enough humor to keep things from getting too sappy and disrupting the mood.
But Steven has a point when he says there’s no “I” in team, and the rest of the cast has their working boots (or floppy shoes) on. Colin Quinn plays a well written antagonist that still adds a sense of poignancy to the plot, and Cena is great as a dimwitted version of his usual good guy persona.
Also LeBron James plays himself as well as Aaron’s BFF, getting some of the funniest scenes in the film with Hader. He steals the show with a hilarious, almost obsessive need to prevent Amy from breaking his friend’s heart.
None of the raunch- and there’s plenty of it in this movie- feels too stupid or over the line. Schumer and director Judd Apatow are in their comfort zone with some of the funniest sex routines I’ve seen in a while, including one in the film’s second half that caused some jaws in the audience to drop. If I had any real complaint I guess it’s maybe fifteen minutes or so too long- Schumer is a good writer, to where she can establish her characters’ motivations fairly early. But a lot of it feels autobiographical, so it’s a minor complaint. I’ll gladly recommend Trainwreck if you’re in the mood for a crude but still intelligent comedy, because its title is a big, fat, dirty stinking lie.