Not quite a trainwreck: more a delay or replacement bus service. Comedy up-and-comer Amy Schumer writes and stars in this funny but unthreatening comedy directed by Judd Apatow, softening her standup turn into what is basically a regular romantic comedy – but there are loads of cameos from sports stars to make sure the male audience demographic is well catered for.
Schumer plays Amy, a magazine writer who is different from blushing romcom heroines because she sleeps around, drinks and smokes dope like an irresponsible guy: her commitment-phobia and substance abuse apparently derive from her dad’s attitude – the movie begins with an uproarious 70s flashback to a speech he gave to Amy and her sister when they were little girls, the film’s most purely cynical and funniest moment.
From then on, after a disastrous interlude with a sexually conflicted bodybuilder, Amy has a relationship with a nice sports doctor Aaron (Bill Hader) – a plotline I suspect has been inspired by Miranda’s passion for the New York Knicks’ physio in Sex and the City. Her wild lifestyle doesn’t damage her career: a calamity with an intern results in high-profile employment with another prestige magazine. Tilda Swinton plays Amy’s bullying Brit editor, and shows that she can play comedy. Trainwreck hasn’t got the acid of Apatow’s more incorrect comedies: some laughs, though.
