Amy (Amy Schumer) runs from commitment, which makes her feel badly, so she drinks, uses other drugs and tells herself because her career is going fine, everything must be the way it’s meant to.
The revolving door of boyfriends keeps turning.
When Amy meets successful sports surgeon Aaron Connors (Bill Hader) Amy falls in love for real, seemingly for the first time ready to admit to her flaws and make efforts to change them.
We say, “Trainwreck doesn’t sound funny, but it is.”
TAYLOR: Before this film I hadn’t heard of Amy Schumer. She wrote and stars in Trainwreck, which if not autobiographical, is at least familiar to Schumer and to you. As the tagline reads, “We’ve all known one (or we’ve been one).” I’m impressed. Schumer has the blunt, occasionally shocking, honesty that seems to permeate comedies these days, especially in films like this one, directed by Judd Apatow (This is 40).
The difference between Trainwreck and other Apatow films is mathematically solved by Schumer’s sensibility, realism and believability.
HOWE: We’ve all seen an Apatow movie and most of them are pretty pants. This, on the other hand, surprised me. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe this was due to the fact that Schumer wrote Trainwreck, rather than Apatow. That may be the reason itself that the film, and therefore the comedy, has a more real, raw feel to it. It’s a relationship from a woman’s perspective rather than a guy writing it and telling her how he wants her to play the part.
TAYLOR: There’s still plenty of Apatow in this New York movie. I didn’t laugh once, but I usually don’t. I did smile a lot and I really enjoyed getting to know the characters. It’s a bit long (Apatow B-stories run deep), but I didn’t mind because the characters, situations and jokes were likeable.
I was surprised that there were two disappointing moments in the film. Usually at the three-quarter mark something bad happens that our main characters have to work out, but in Trainwreck we get two. That’s life I guess. I can’t really predict if you’ll find it funny or not. I can tell you it’s well made, well acted and entertaining, with many surprising guest stars.
HOWE: I, on the other hand, did laugh, quite a bit, especially in the first 40 minutes or so. At this point the serious part of the movie kicked in and, to be honest, I didn’t really mind. I found the story to be strong, realistic, the acting and dialogue between the characters very good and unlike some of Apatow’s films, it kept me entertained for the entire movie.
– Taylor gives Trainwreck 3.5 grumpy Mets’ fans out of 5.
– Howe gives it 3.5 snowglobes out of 5.
– Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers based in Vernon. Their column, Reel Reviews, runs in The Morning Star Friday and Sunday.
