Warning: Contains Spoilers
Trainwreck, a romantic comedy written by and starring Amy Schumer and directed by Judd Apatow, was released in theaters July 17th, 2015. Amy Schumer plays Amy, a magazine writer who was inspired to live a life of non-monogamy after her father told her that a monogamous life wasn’t the ideal way to go. Amy parties and has casual sex until she meets Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), a sports doctor that treats professional athletes, when she is assigned a piece to write about him for the magazine. Aaron pursues Amy until she finally gives in and they start a relationship that is rocky due to Amy’s fear of commitment.
Trainwreck did not disappoint as a comedy and the actors chosen for each role were perfect. The movie was full of laugh-out-loud moments and each character had his or her own role in making the movie funny and entertaining. Almost every word that Amy Schumer said was witty and hilarious, and she was perfect as the star character. Amy’s love interest, Aaron Conners, was also comedic, and even though he was a little dorky, I found myself swooning over him throughout the movie. LeBron James had a role as Aaron’s friend, and for his first movie, he was amazing (his scenes were some of my favorites). Some of the other most memorable characters from the movie were Amy’s casual boyfriend at the beginning of the movie (John Cena), Amy’s outspoken father (Colin Quinn), Amy’s nerdy brother-in-law (Mark Birbiglia) and nephew-in-law (Evan Brinkman), an intern at Amy’s office (Ezra Miller), and The Dogwalker (Daniel Radcliffe). The movie did occasionally take a break from comedy, such as during the heavy scene’s revolving around the death of Amy and Kim’s father. Otherwise, Amy Schumer did an excellent job writing a script that was brilliantly hilarious from the very first scene to the very last.
The place where Trainwreck fell flat was the light in which Amy’s non-monogamous life was painted. I went into Trainwreck thinking that it would revolutionize the way that the media portrayed women and their choices revolving around sex and relationships. Instead of supporting the lifestyle of a career woman who chooses to partake in partying and casual sex, the movie demonized Amy’s lifestyle. Amy’s casual sex scenes were always uncomfortable and other characters would occasionally make negative remarks about her choices that were never defended. In the end, Amy ended up changing her lifestyle because it turned out that all along she only chose it because she was scared of commitment and she finally realized, of course, that she did want to settle down and be in a relationship. Amy’s character confirmed the negative stereotype of a woman who enjoys being the life of the party, but isn’t actually content or fulfilled that way, reinforcing the idea that a woman can never make the decision to partake in a solitary, carefree lifestyle without being damaged and unhappy. This movie, like every other romantic comedy, portrayed yet another woman that needed a man and a relationship to be satisfied, and it’s about time that movies stop perpetuating that myth. Trainwreck really could have fought the negative and incorrect stereotypes of a woman who enjoys casual sex and doesn’t want a relationship, but instead, the movie reinforced it.
Trainwreck did succeed in being a genuinely hilarious, entertaining movie and I would definitely watch it again. However, if you’re going into the movie thinking that it’s going to break the glass ceiling and change the way that media depicts women in relationships, don’t hold your breath.