A Wilson Phillips Story

In the spring of 1989, my freshman year of high school, the local "morning zoo" radio station ran a contest in which area high schools competed to win an appearance at their school by girl-rockers The Bangles.  My friends and I were giddy - we loved The Bangles, and their wistful ballad Eternal Flame was shooting up the charts that spring.

The way to win this contest, in the era before cell phones and the web, was to call the radio station at every given opportunity and vote for your school.  So every day at lunchtime, my friends and I huddled by the pay phone bank in our school's cafeteria and dialed the radio station in hopes that our school would be chosen for the big appearance.  We didn't win, but it created a memory that stays with me to this day - and one that I can't help but think of whenever I hear Eternal Flame on Pandora or my iPod (yes, I pretty much bought the entire Bangles catalog from iTunes).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when my husband and I saw the movie Bridesmaids.  As a big fan of the (dying) romantic comedy/"chick flick" genre, I'd been looking forward to it immensely since it first came out.  My husband, a high school film teacher, was also interested in seeing it - partly to please me (it's always in your best interest to keep a pregnant woman happy), but also to see whether this movie could live up to the hype that has followed it since its debut.

We were not disappointed.  It's funny, it's smart, it's endearing, it's real, and it may just spark the revival of late 80's pop stars Wilson Phillips - for me, evoking memories of those long ago days in the high school cafeteria.

Other than Wilson Phillips, there are a few key reasons why Bridesmaids succeeds where other recent romantic comedies have fallen short.  Obviously, there's the humor, which is getting the most press lately (newsflash: women can be funny!).  But in my opinion, why Bridesmaids succeeds has more to do with character and story than a gross-out scene in a swanky bridal salon.  The female friendships that are outlined in the movie, primarily that of Kristen Wiig's Annie and Maya Rudolph's Lillian, are achingly true and believable.

It's their relationship, as well as the growth that each character experiences throughout the film, that keeps you cheering for them, both individually and together.  I loved Annie's bridal shower gift to Lillian - a memory box containing, among other things, a Wilson Phillips CD - and the meaning implicit in it.  Those kinds of friendships, with those who shared your love of pegged acid-washed jeans and teased bangs, are ones worth keeping - they are the ones that keep you true to who you really are.  I'm glad that Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo thought that was a story worth bringing to life on-screen.  And it seems like even The Bangles might be resurrecting those old friendships - after all, they're touring together this summer.