GIRLS TRIP – Review

Like many road trips, GIRLS TRIP starts off with great promise, only to devolve into a series of questionable decisions. To be fair though, GIRLS TRIP isn’t aimed at me. While I’d like to think I have a pretty good bead on what’s funny and what isn’t, this grumpy old white dude may not be the best judge of a comedy aimed at black women. However, if I were to base my decision on how funny a film is on the reaction of the screening audience, then it’s safe to say the target audience is going to eat this up. GIRLS TRIP is uneven and goes on too long, but it has a better-than-average laugh-per-minute ratio with some of its best jokes true belly-busters.

Instead of a wedding to reunite old friends like its spiritual predecessors THE HANGOVER and BRIDESMAIDS, GIRLS TRIP offers up a trip to the Essence Festival in The Big Easy. Bestselling author Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) and her former NFL star husband Stewart (Mike Colter) are there to promote their self-help book “You Can Have It All”. Ryan is a guest speaker at the festival and brings along a trio of old college friends who, like the ‘Wolf Pack’ in the Hangover films, constitute a gang of hard-partiers known as the ‘Flossy Posse’. There’s Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith), a divorced mother of two who hasn’t had a man in years. Then there’s Sasha (Queen Latifah), a gossip blogger who’d had a falling out with Ryan years earlier, but is willing to come along hoping to score a juicy scoop that will help her pay off some bills. Finally, there’s Dina (Tiffany Haddish), the loud-mouth stoner who seems to have never grown up. The Flossy Posse get together, get crazy, and get “white girl wasted”

When GIRLS TRIP focuses on the women’s drunken revelry on the streets of New Orleans, it is legitimately hilarious. The audience at the screening I attended was screaming so loudly I missed half of the dialog. The scene excerpted in the trailer where two of the gals pee on the Bourbon Street crowd from a zipline suspended between buildings goes further than expected and is just as funny as the corresponding poop scene in BRIDESMAIDS.  But often the balance of serious elements and humor never feels quite right.  The majority of laughs are in the first half, but the script runs out of fun things for the Flossy Posse to do in New Orleans and starts to focus on the marital strife between Ryan and unfaithful Stewart and the Orpah-like TV show they’re planning. The second half runs out of steam and goes on far too long (this movie is 15 minutes longer than DUNKIRK!), hurting its momentum. It doesn’t help that the producers of GIRLS TRIP feel obligated to shoehorn in performance footage from P. Diddy, New Edition, Common and Mariah Carey.

The four leads are terrific company and have excellent chemistry, but they seem to operate at one of two pitches; heavy, confrontational drama or screaming at the top of their lungs. Tiffany Haddish is clearly the standout. From her introduction where’s she’s too dense to understand that she’s been fired for assaulting a colleague who stole her Gogurt out of the refrigerator at work, to her priceless reaction to a naked bum, to a sidesplitting moment where she does nasty things to a grapefruit and banana, Haddish brings a seemingly improvised vibe that raises the bar in terms of laughs. It’s a star-making turn. The other three gals are fine though Ms Pinkett is so tiny that there are moments she looks like a child when wedged between these bigger women (how tall is this chick!?!). I wish GIRLS TRIP would have been about a half hour shorter, but it’s good fun, knows its audience well, and is a trip worth taking.

3 of 5 Stars