Kirsten Wiig and Annie Mumolo, the screenwriters behind the 2011 hit,
Bridesmaids, team up again, in a writing and acting capacity, in Barb And
Star Go To Vista Del Mar.
Whilst the pair don’t strike the same comic gold that they did in their
previous collaboration, the comedy is a bit patchy at times, Barb And Star
is still a lot of fun.
The plot sees divorced Star (Wiig) and widowed Barb (Mumolo) losing their
jobs in a furniture store in the small town of Soft Rock. Disillusioned by
their other interest in life, the local Talking Club, the pair decide to
head to Florida to take a holiday at the paradise resort of Vista Del Mar.
Meanwhile in a subplot an evil villain, played by Wiig, who is sensitive to
sunlight, has sent her henchman Edgar Paget (Jamie Dornan) to Vista Del Mar
so that he can release killer mosquitoes on the town. The locals apparently made her life a misery when she lived there in her youth and this is her way of extracting revenge.
There is an air of silliness to Barb And Star, from the terrific musical
number “Palm Vista Hotel” that greets the pair when they arrive at the
resort to Jamie Dornan singing a song called “Edgar’s Prayer” that requires
him to dance along a beach and gyrate up against a palm tree, to a couple of
unexpected cameos, everything about Barb And Star is so over the top that
you can’t help but be drawn in by its sheer enthusiasm.
Barb And Star might not be highbrow entertainment and some of its jokes do
fall a bit flat, but if watched in the right frame of mind, Barb And Star
can be a hugely enjoyable piece of nonsense.
