SOMETHING is lost along the way as stand-up comic and skit writer, comedy "it" girl of the year Amy Schumer pens her disappointing feature film debut.
Influenced by her divorced father (Colin Quinn), commitment-phobe and party animal Amy (Schumer) leads a life of one-night stands, believing that monogamy is not humanly possible.
When she is tasked with interviewing Aaron (Bill Hader), a sports doctor, for work, she begins to have feelings that she never thought possible and the two begin a relationship; something way out of her comfort zone.
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READ NOWThe overly familiar "commitment-phobe settles down" plot gets another workout, only this time it is a single woman in her 30s doing the sleeping around, a refreshing twist.
However, despite Schumer's proven comedic abilities, she fails to bring a fresh insight into dating, relationships or fear of commitment; her script sticks to a routine path.
Her voice is somehow lost in the feature-length format; there is little here that we have not seen before, except the time spent with some family-related drama that may draw a tear or two.
The snappy, edgy comedy in Schumer's skits and stand-up doesn't translate to feature film, particularly with Judd Apatow at the helm, who is notorious for outstaying his welcome, with comedies running no shorter than two hours.
Had he shaved about 20 minutes off the run time, it would have been sharper.
Schumer has undeniable screen presence and she is matched by the sweet Hader, always watchable Brie Larson as her settled-down sister and a collection of co-stars including basketball player LeBron James, Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei in a hilarious mock-art house romance film.
THE ESSENTIALS
Trainwreck (MA)
Directed by: Judd Apatow
Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson
Three stars
Review by Julian Wright
In cinemas August 6