Regina
Hall Queen
Latifah Jada
Pinkett Smith
Tiffany Haddish
Kate Walsh Mike Colter Lara Grice Larenz Tate
Four friends decide to get together again after
years of doing their own thing.
Ryan (Hall) has become famous for her book with the message that You Can Have it All, and with her
football hero husband Stewart
(Colter) they make up a golden couple promoted by their agent Elizabeth (Walsh)
and looking forward to their own TV talk show and product line. They have a public engagement in New
Orleans, and Ryan thinks it would be a perfect time to get the “Flossy Posse”
(partying college roommates) back together for a reunion.
Sasha (Latifah), Lisa (Smith), and Dina
(Haddish) are on board and meet up for a flashy, fun weekend in the party
city. They all have back-stories,
though. Sasha has her own blog,
which digs up “dirt” about celebrities, but she’s hanging on financially by
only a thin thread. Dina has
impulse control problems and has just been fired from her job. Lisa and her two children live with her
mother after Lisa’s divorce.
They also have colorful personalities, all very
different from one another, and there is a certain amount of painful history
that surfaces from time to time.
These stories are cleverly sprinkled in, so that the viewer is informed
gradually. They only come to a
head towards the very end, which, to me, was the most interesting part of the
film.
But the personalities are the
entertainment. First and foremost
is Dina, who has no limits as to what she will do or say, which makes her the
comedian/problem for everyone.
Ryan is forceful by virtue of her success in life (which is far from
stable and predictable) and her message to women about being able to have it
all. Sasha looks/acts the part of
someone who has made it, but something keeps coming up about her and Ryan. Lisa seems to have traveled backward in
time, and the others have to bring her up to date in her frumpy dress, her frumpy
attitude, and her obsessive nurturance.
This mixture is dynamite in New Orleans where
everything the filmmakers could dream up in raucous comedy, embarrassing
situations, and friendship brinkmanship gets played. To spice it up even more, cameo appearances by Common, Sean
‘Diddy’ Combs, Ava DuVernay, Mariah Carey and their groups blitz the screen. The jokes don’t always come across
well, but there are so many, one can overlook those few.
Girls
Trip will be savored more by those whose culture is represented by the
characters. The audience in the
screening I attended was optimally interactive, applauding, making comments,
and groaning throughout. As a
white woman of a certain age, I sat through most of it interested, but not
engaged, up until the concluding scenes when the characters developed more
insight into their friendship and its value. That is the substantive point of the whole film; that
underneath everything, above all, is friendship. I can certainly go along with that!
Director Malcolm D. Lee, wanting to avoid black
female stereotypes, highlights the genuine warmth among the women. They fight and argue, but not for long,
and they always make up. The four talented main actresses (Hall,
Latifah, Smith, Haddish) are funny and entertaining, deftly showing off their
skills. Walsh and Colter lend
strong supporting roles.
A raunchy, raucous indulgence that
eventually gets to what most of us value in life.
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