Bridesmaids (2011) on Netflix
Annie Walker is broke and single in Milwaukee when Lillian, her lifelong friend, gets engaged and names her maid of honor. A wealthy bridesmaid, Helen, competes with her for Lillian's attention.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.8/10328,518 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
Annie Walker's cake shop, Cake Baby, closed and left her finances a mess. She now sells jewelry, shares an apartment with Gil and Brynn, and has a casual relationship with Ted, who sees her as a third-string partner. Her old friend Lillian is engaged to Doug and wants Annie as her maid of honor. The engagement party brings Annie together with the rest of the wedding party: Rita, Lillian's cousin; Becca, who works with Lillian; Megan, Doug's sister; and Helen, whose husband employs Doug. Helen and Annie both want to be closest to Lillian, and each tries to outdo the other with parties and plans. On the drive home, Officer Nathan Rhodes pulls Annie over for erratic driving and a broken taillight; he knows her bakery and tells her she should open another one.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bridesmaids (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Rebel Wilson improvised for Apatow and Feig for an hour when auditioning for Megan, and they cast her in the smaller role of Brynn instead; it was her first American production, and the $3,500 she was paid all went toward Screen Actors Guild joining fees.
- Paul Feig said Hollywood treated the film as a test of whether comedies starring women were worth making: "I was really sweating because if this didn't work then I'm basically the man who killed movies for women for eternity. So, thank God it worked."
- The premise began in 2006, shortly after Wiig was cast in a supporting role in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up; Apatow asked whether she had any screenplay ideas of her own, a practice that had previously led to Steve Carell's idea for The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
- Mindy Kaling read for Lillian and lost out to Maya Rudolph; Rose Byrne auditioned for the same part but was chosen as the nemesis Helen precisely because she wasn't a comedian, Feig fearing the character would come out "too arch" played by a funny woman.
- Universal reported that males made up 33 percent of the audience and 63 percent were over 30. Judd Apatow said the plan had been a small foreign release because "the concept of bridesmaids wasn't in a lot of cultures", so the overseas success was a surprise.
- In 2021, members of the Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay 12th in the 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century, and in 2025 the film ranked number 32 on The New York Times' list of the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century.
