Bachelorette 2012

Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times: The movie starts out rowdy, then turns more serious as the heroines confront their own weaknesses, and while both sides of Bachelorette come off as forced at times, the film is consistently funny, and Headland achieves a rare honesty. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: The best reason to see Bachelorette is Dunst, once a child star with an uncanny ability to project maturity, now an actress with an ever-increasing range. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: "Bachelorette" comes at you with the crackling intensity of machine-gun fire. Maybe the safest way to watch it is by peeking out from a behind a sandbag. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Spending time with these people is hellish. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Bachelorette succumbs to sentimentality late in the game, but it's funniest and most entertaining when channeling its raging inner bitch. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: For women who find the film grim, I imagine that's because part of it feels true and rare in an American movie. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I don't see why women being as slobby and gross as the guys is such a feminist breakthrough -- especially since, as in Bachelorette, the slobbiness and grossness is witless. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Bachelorette is expertly shot and paced, with a script that's as cutting as a serrated knife. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: [Compared to Bridesmaids]... this is more of an ensemble effort, gamely led by the trio (and potentially awesome law firm) of Dunst, Fisher and Caplan. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: A tasty cast and a good share of snappy dialogue provide entertainment but can't quite make this pre-nuptials shindig quite the party that it might have been. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Even in this dreary, going nowhere role, Dunst is fascinating to watch. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Bachelorette will no doubt be divisive, possibly along generational lines. If you have to ask "Do women really talk this way?" it's not for you. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: The women's dialogue is pungently ribald but diffuse; too often, shouting and shrieking and gesticulating take the place of engaged performance. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Its actresses - particularly Dunst - are terrific. Headland has a nice feel for music, too, and takes some editing risks. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, NPR: The lion's share of Bachelorette, written and directed by Leslye Headland, is unnervingly entertaining. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: What's actually off-putting about this movie is how desperate the filmmakers are to exploit other people's ideas. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: As smart and popreferential as Headland's writing is, it's a little underwhelming when it comes to delivering on laughs. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Sometimes a movie is so bad it makes me want to go into seclusion and never see another film. Bachelorette is one of those. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: I'm ready to forget I ever saw it. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Dunst, Caplan and Fisher make a delicious trio as they stir up a bitches' brew of revenge against poor Becky (Wilson). Headland can write zingers that would make the cruelest bridezilla blush. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This is a rapier-sharp, fast-paced comedy of manners, less concerned with delivering big laughs than with exploring its characters and their complicated interactions. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Headland works hard to reconcile the wild and the tame; if she never quite gets the balance right, ya gotta admire her bold juxtaposition of overdose-resuscitation gags with lessons on self-loathing and bulimia. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: A nasty little piece of work -- a phrase I use not with contempt but with grudging admiration. Read more

Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Bachelorette" commits only one crime, but it's a make-or-break offense -- it's just not quite funny enough. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Not to sound too much like a bratty teen-and these bachelorettes should know better-but, um, why should I care again? Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Talented actors are wasted in a film that induces more cringes than chuckles as women old enough to know better act like horny sailors on leave, absorb mass quantities of alcohol and drugs, and generally behave horribly. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: After a promisingly funny first half, this tale of three coke-snorting gal-pals trying not to screw up their friend's nuptials all but drowns in its own catty cynicism, turning as stingy with emotion and insight as it is with real laughs. Read more

Chris Packham, Village Voice: Caplan ... steals all of her scenes, takes them to the Target returns desk for illicit refunds, and spends all the money on whatever unicorn sweat gives you big, dewy eyes like Mary-Louise Parker. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Lovely women doing genuinely ugly things makes for a potent combination. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's a sour, only fitfully funny affair, wasting the abilities of its otherwise talented cast, which includes Kirsten Dunst, James Marsden, Adam Scott and Isla Fisher. Read more